Polling for presidential election concludes with over 99% voter turnout

A day before the election, Murmu described her nomination as a historic moment that has made her tribal community, especially its women, “utsahit” (excited), The Indian Express reported on Monday.

Sinha appealed days before the elections to all MLAs and MPs to vote “according to the Constitution and their conscience this time” and said that “only one side wants to protect the provisions and values enshrined in the Constitution”. Remarking that democracy stood “ruined” in India, Sinha said, “This year the presidential election is not a contest between two individuals but two ideologies.”

The electoral college, which elects the president through the system of proportional representation, comprises elected MPs and members of the Assemblies.

Two members of the electoral college, Anant Kumar Singh and Mahendra Hari Dalvi, were not eligible to vote owing to their disqualification under Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act 1951 subsequent to a court judgment, the EC said in a statement.

Polling facilities were also provided by the EC for MPs and MLAs who wanted to vote at a place other than their own. The EC said 44 MPs were permitted to vote at state headquarters, nine MLAs at the Parliament House and two MLAs in other state headquarters.

“As per reports being received, out of a total of 771 Members of Parliament entitled to vote (05 vacant) and similarly out of total 4,025 Members of the Assemblies entitled to vote (06 vacant and 02 disqualified), over 99% cast their votes today. However, 100% voting by MLAs was reported from Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Puducherry, Sikkim and Tamil Nadu,” the EC said.

The value of an MP’s vote has gone down to 700 from 708 in the absence of an Assembly in Jammu and Kashmir. Nominated MPs and MLAs and members of Legislative Councils are not entitled to vote in this election. The value of each MLA’s vote varies from state to state. In Uttar Pradesh, the value is 208, followed by 176 in Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu. In Maharashtra, it is 175. In Sikkim, the value of vote per MLA is seven, while it is nine in Nagaland and eight in Mizoram.

The EC also provided unique violent-ink pens with a serial number to ensure that no other instrument is used for marking the vote.

In a first, the EC also allowed Covid-19 positive electors to cast their votes in the last hour of polling or after all the non-Covid electors finished voting.

The EC said two Covid-positive electors cast their vote at the Tamil Nadu Assembly and one Covid-positive MP chose to cast his vote at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

“Foolproof security arrangements were made to ensure safe custody and hassle-free transportation of empty ballot boxes from the ECI to states on 12th and 13th July, 2022. Similar transportation arrangements for the state teams have been made to bring back the 30 polled ballot boxes,” the EC statement said.

All the ballot boxes and other election materials would reach the Parliament House by July 19 for the counting of votes, which would be done on July 21 at 11am.

The term of office of President Ram Nath Kovind ends on July 24, 2022. As per Article 62 of the Constitution of India, an election to fill the vacancy caused by the expiration of the term of office of the outgoing president is required to be completed before the term expires.

Some numbers

3,991 out of 4,025 MLAs voted
763 out of 771 MPs voted
4,754 of electoral college of 4,796 voted–99.12% voting