NEW DELHI, June 9: The elections for the next president to succeed Ram Nath Kovind will be held on July 18, the election commission announced on Thursday. This would be the 16th Presidential Election in the country.
“The ECI has fixed the schedule for the election of the office of the President of India. The notification for the election will be issued on June 15, the last date for nomination is scheduled for June 29, while the polls to be held on July 18. The counting of the votes, if needed, shall be done on July 21,” Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said at a press conference in New Delhi.
“The commission has decided to maintain all Covid precautions and protocols on polling day,” he added.
The tenure of President Ram Nath Kovind will come to an end on July 24, 2022, and as per Article 62 of the Constitution, an election to fill the vacancy caused by the expiration of the term of office is required to be completed before the term ends.
The law provides that the notification for election shall be issued on or after the sixtieth day before the expiry of term. Article 324 of the Constitution, the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952, and the rules made thereunder vest the superintendence, direction, and control of the conduct of election to the office of the President of India in the ECI.
The President is elected by the members of the Electoral College consisting of elected members of both Houses of Parliament, and elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of all States including National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
However, the nominated members of either Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha or Legislative Assemblies of the states are not eligible to be included in the Electoral College and therefore, are not entitled to participate in the election process. Similarly, members of the Legislative Councils are also not electors for the Presidential election.
According to Article 55 (3) of the Constitution the election is held in accordance with the System of Proportional Representation by means of single transferable vote and the voting at such election shall be by secret ballot. In this system, the elector has to mark preferences against the names of the candidates.
The elector can mark as many preferences as the number of candidates. While the marking of the first preference is compulsory for the ballot paper to be valid, other preferences are optional. For marking the vote, the Commission also supplies a particular pen to the electors in the polling station by the designated official when the ballot paper is handed over.
The Members of Parliament are expected to cast their votes at the Place of Poll in the Parliament House, New Delhi, and members of State Legislative Assemblies are expected to vote at the respective State Capital. The Secretary General, Rajya Sabha will be the Returning Officer for the elections, Kumar announced.
Election shall be held with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote. The total value of the votes for all MPs combined is 5,43,200 and States is 5,43,231. The total members of the electoral college for the current election would be 4809, according to the EC.
(Manas Dasgupta)
