Opinion - Leader Page Articles   

How is the President elected?

To paraphrase from the website of the Election Commission of India (http://www.eci.gov.in/miscellaneous_statistics/presidential_elec2002.asp):

The Rashtrapati is elected by members of an electoral college consisting of the elected members of both Houses of Parliament and the elected members of State Assemblies, including the legislatures of Delhi and Puducherry. Every elected member of the Legislative Assembly of a State has as many vote value units as there are multiples of one thousand in the quotient obtained by dividing the population of the State, based on the 1971 census, by the total number of the elected members of the Assembly.

The total value of votes of all the States added together is divided by the total number of elected members of Parliament (Lok Sabha 543 + Rajya Sabha 233) to get the value of votes per each Member of Parliament. Fractions exceeding one-half are counted as one, and the other fractions are disregarded.

President Kalam's term will expire on July 24, 2007 and the Election Commission will "appoint the dates" for the election of the next President so that he or she is able to take office on July 25.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Beyond the admission imbroglio
Not all Islamists are the same
Second term for President: history, numbers, and alignments
How is the President elected?
Something good may come of Olmert's failure
Corrections and Clarifications
Misogynist conspiracy against Hillary Clinton
Mockery of law
Bush's veto
New party
Hydel projects
Taking Dhaka did not figure in Manekshaw's plans: General Jacob

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu