In News:

• Due to the absence of a legislative assembly in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), the value of a Member of Parliament (MP) vote is likely to fall from 708 to 700 in the presidential elections scheduled for July.
  
  
• In this context, we will try to explain the process of the Presidential Election in India.
  
  

What’s in today’s article:

• Presidential Election (Overview, process)
  
  
• News Summary
  
  

Presidential Election:

• Overview:
  • Under the Constitution of India (Article 52), there shall always be a President of India, holding the highest elective office in the country.
    
    
  • The President holds office for a period of five years from the date on which s/he enters upon her/his office. Accordingly, an election is held before the expiration of the term of the incumbent President.
    
    
  • S/he is elected in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and the Presidential and vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952. The said Act is supplemented by the provisions of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Rules, 1974.
    
    
  • Therefore, the President is elected by an Electoral College (Article 54), which consists of the elected members of both Houses of Parliament and the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of all the States and also UTs of NCT of Delhi and Puducherry (now J&K also).
    
    
  • Under Article 324 of the Constitution of India, the authority to conduct elections to the Office of President is vested in the Election Commission of India (ECI).
    
    
  • As per Article 55(3) of the Constitution of India, the election of the 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 by secret ballot.
    
    
  
  
  
• Process of election:
  • Nomination:
    • Each candidate considering a run for the President of India's office was supposed to file their nominations.
      
      
    • Candidates were also asked to pay a deposit of Rs 15,000 and submit a signed list of 50 proposers and 50 seconders.
      
      
    • The proposers and seconders can be any of the electors eligible to vote in the Presidential election.
      
      
    
    
    
  • Voting:
    • All elected MLAs (in their respective state and UT capitals) and all elected MPs (at Parliament) will be given ballot papers to cast their vote.
      
      
    • Each ballot paper will contain the name of all candidates who are contesting the Presidential election.
      
      
    • The electors will proceed to indicate their preference for each candidate.
      
      
    • An elector is not required to mark preferences for all Presidential candidates. S/he has to only mark their first preference for their vote to be considered in the election.
      
      
    
    
    
  • Value of votes (Refer infographics): The value of the vote of a Member of Parliament has been fixed at 708 since the 1997 presidential election.
    
    
    
  • Counting votes:
    • The total number of votes that a Presidential candidate garners is calculated by adding up the value of all the ballots in which a particular candidate receives a first preference.
      
      
    • The value of each ballot paper depends on who cast the votes. For example, in 2017 Presidential election,
      • The ballot paper of a UP MLA will be valued at 208, of an Andhra Pradesh MLA at 159 and of an MLA from Sikkim at 7.
        
        
      • The value of the ballot paper of any MP (from Rajya Sabha or Lok Sabha) is 708.
        
        
      
      
      
    • Deciding the winner:
      • The winner of the Presidential election is the person who gets more votes than a certain quota.
        
        
      • The quota is decided by adding up the votes polled for each candidate, dividing the sum by 2 and adding '1' to the quotient.
        
        
      
      
      
    
    
    
  
  
  

News Summary:

• Before it was bifurcated into two UTs of Ladakh and J&K (in August 2019), the erstwhile state of J&K had 83 assembly seats.
  
  
• According to the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, the UT of J&K will have a legislative assembly, while Ladakh will be governed directly by the Centre.
  
  
• The government had announced that elections to the legislative assembly would be held after the completion of the delimitation of assembly constituencies.
  
  
• Recently, the Delimitation Commission for J&K notified its final order in which it has recommended a 90-member House for the newly carved out UT.
  
  
• But it may take some time to have an elected House in place in the UT.
  
  
• It is not for the first time that legislators of a state assembly will not be able to participate in the presidential elections. For example, in 1974, the 182-member Gujarat Assembly was dissolved in March and could not be constituted before the presidential election.
  
  
• However, J&K will not go unrepresented in the presidential elections as members of Lok Sabha will be eligible to exercise their franchise to elect the First Citizen of the country.