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18 Apr 2022 Presidential election

Posted at 16:37h in Daily current-affairs by khyati khare 0 Comments

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The term of the current President of India is about to end in July 2022, along with the 16th presidential election will be held in the country to elect his successor.

The Indian President is elected through an Electoral College system, in which votes are cast by national and state level MPs.
The election is conducted by the Election Commission of India (EC).
The Electoral College is made up of all the elected members of the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament (Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha MPs) and elected members of the Legislative Assemblies (MLAs) of the States and Union Territories.

Before voting comes the nomination phase, where the candidate submits his intention to stand for election and files his nomination along with a signed list of 50 proposers and 50 supporters.
These proposers and supporters can be any of the members of the Electoral College at the state and national level.
The rule requiring 50 proposers and supporters was introduced when the Election Commission observed in 1974 that nominations were filed by many candidates, many of whom had little chance of winning.
A voter cannot propose or support the nomination of more than one candidate.

The vote cast by each MP or MLA does not count as one vote.
The value of vote of each MP of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha is fixed at 708.
The value of votes of MLAs depends on the population of different states.
According to the Constitution (84th Amendment) Act 2001, at present the population of the states is based on the census data of 1971, which will be changed after the publication of census data after the year 2026.
The value of each MLA’s vote is determined by dividing it by the number of MLAs in the state assembly and dividing the quotient obtained by 1000.
For example in Uttar Pradesh the highest vote value for each MLA is 208. The vote value of an MLA in Maharashtra is 175, while in Arunachal Pradesh it is just 8.

A nominated candidate does not win by simple majority but is ensured through the system of securing a specific quota of votes. During the counting of votes, all valid votes cast by the electoral college through ballot papers are summed up by the Election Commission and the candidate for victory has to get 50% + 1 of the total votes cast.
Unlike general elections, here voters vote for the candidate of one party and the names of the candidates are written in the order of preference on the electoral ballot paper.
The President is elected according to the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote and the process of secret ballot is adopted.

According to Article 61, the President can be removed from office before the expiry of his term only on the ground of ‘violation of the Constitution’.
However, the meaning of the phrase ‘violation of the constitution’ has not been defined in the Indian Constitution.
The process of impeachment of the President can be initiated in either House of the Parliament.
A motion against the President must be signed by at least one-fourth of the members of the House.
The impeachment motion of the President should be passed by a special majority (two-thirds) in the original house.
After this the motion is sent to the second house for consideration. The second house acts as an inspector. A select committee has been constituted to investigate the allegations against the President.
During the process, the President has the right to defend himself through an authorized lawyer. He may choose to defend himself or may appoint a person/lawyer or Attorney General of India to do so.