Weighing the vote

In the past decades, there has been an unwritten tradition that the Vice-President moves into the President's slot. This was the case with ...

In the past decades, there has been an unwritten tradition that the Vice-President moves into the President8217;s slot. This was the case with S. Radhakrishnan, Zakir Hussain, R. Venkataraman and Shanker Dayal Sharma, who were elevated to the President8217;s post.

Going by that convention, current Vice-President K.R. Narayanan would be a natural choice to move into the highest office. Even if he had not been Vice-President, Narayanan8217;s long career in the public domain, erudition and wide acceptability make him an ideal choice for the job.

Right up to the Eighties, when the Congress held sway at the centre, it was largely the Congress which decided who would be the Presidential candidate, though the notional exercise of consulting the different Chief Ministers and the leaders of other political parties was gone through. The clout of the Congress in the State Assemblies and in both Houses of Parliament was enough to see their candidate home.

But today, the Congress remains a pale shadow of its past. The ruling 13-member United Front coalition controls a sizeable chunk of the Presidential votes, and has a strong presence in the State Assemblies. A third factor is the vote-share controlled by the BJP. As the single largest party in Parliament, the BJP and its allies have at their command nearly 30 per cent of the electoral college.

But less than two months from the Presidential polls, a contest seems inevitable for the highest office in the country. With President Sharma8217;s term expiring on July 24, the Election Commission8217;s notification of the next Presidential election schedule by June 5, will set the ball rolling.

The actual voting for the President is a complex affair. The voting is conducted indirectly, through an electoral college. The college comprises the elected members of both Houses of Parliament and members of the legislative assemblies of the States, including those of Delhi and the Union Territory of Pondicherry. Nominated members of either House of Parliament or State assemblies do not have a vote.

VALUE OF VOTE: To ensure that there is uniformity between States and the Union, the Indian Constitution carries a formula to determine the value of the vote which each MP or MLA is entitled to cast.

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Under this formula, the total number of elective seats in the Assembly is multiplied by the number of votes for each member. The total value of votes of all States added together is divided by the total number of elected MPs Lok Sabha 543, plus Rajya Sabha 233 to get the value of votes for each MP See chart. According to Election Commission sources, the election held under a system of proportional representation is by means of a single transferable vote, conducted by secret ballot.

The presidential ballot paper carries no symbols, and merely has two columns giving the names of the candidates and the order of preference. The elector while voting, indicates his first preference and subsequent preferences on the ballot paper.

The complicated process of calculating the vote begins with the adding up of the valid ballot papers credited to each candidate. These totals are multiplied by the value of each vote and this figure is credited to the candidate as the total value of votes secured.

MINIMUM QUOTA: Candidates have to get a certain minimum number of votes, called the minimum quota votes to remain in the race. If the total value of votes of the candidate who has polled the highest first preference votes is above the quota, and in most instances this is the case, then he or she is declared elected.

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If no candidate gets the quota on the basis of first preference votes, then the Returning Officer proceeds to a second round of counting during which the candidate having the lowest value of first preference votes is eliminated and the votes he received are distributed among the remaining candidates.

If subsequent rounds of voting are called, the returning officer will go on eliminating the candidates with the lowest number of votes in subsequent rounds of counting till either one of the continuing candidates gets the required quota. The elimination rounds could continue till only one candidate remains in the field, in which case he is declared elected.