Presidential elections in India

Former Jharkhand Governor and National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Droupadi Murmu was elected the 15th President of India. She becomes the first tribal woman to be appointed to the position and the youngest as well.

Constitutional provisions –

• Following Articles of Indian Constitution deal with the election of President in India —
  • • Article 52 – There shall be a President of India.
    • Article 54 – Election of President (Defines electoral college)
    • Article 55 – Manner of election of President
    • Article 57 – Eligibility for re-election
    • Article 58 – Qualifications for election as President
    • Article 62 – Time of holding election to fill vacancy in the office of president and the term of office or person elected to fill casual vacancy
• Pursuant to the provisions of Indian Constitution, the parliament enacted the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952.
  • • This act empowers the Election Commission of India to issue a notification calling the election on or after the 60th day before the expiry of the term of office of the outgoing President.

Method –

As per Article 55(3), the election of President shall be held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote and the voting at such election shall be held by secret ballot.

Eligibility –

Qualification for election as President —

• • Must be above 35 years old; Must not hold any office of profit;
  • Must have qualified for election as a member of Lok Sabha; Must be registered as an elector of India.

Nomination –

• A nomination paper of a candidate for the election has to be made in the prescribed form and it has to be subscribed by at least 50 electors as proposers and at least 50 electors as seconders.
• The security deposit for the election, of Rs 15000/- should also be deposited with the returning officer.
  • By convention, the Secretary General, Lok Sabha or the Secretary General, Rajya Sabha is appointed as the Returning Officer, by rotation.
  • Secretary General of Rajya Sabha was the returning officer for the 2022 Presidential poll.

Electoral College –

• The President is elected by an electoral college consisting of elected MPs of both Houses of Parliament and elected MLAs of the states and Delhi and Puducherry.
• Nominated members of Rajya Sabha, Lok Sabha and the Assemblies, and members of state Legislative Councils, are not part of the electoral college.

Value of votes –

• The value of votes of MLAs differs from state to state. However, the value of votes of all MPs is the same.
  • The value of votes of electros is basically determined on the basis of population of the states in accordance with the manner laid in Article 55(2).
• In order to stipulate uniformity in the scale of representation, a formula based on the population of each state is used to determine the value of the vote of the members.
• For the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs, the total value of votes of all states and UTs is divided by the total number of MPs (elected) to get the value of votes per MP.
• The winning candidate has to get at least 50 per cent plus one vote to be declared elected.