New Delhi, 09 June: Voting for the country’s 16th Presidential post will be held on July 18 and the results will be out on July 21. The term of the current President Ram Nath Kovind is ending on July 24.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar along with his colleague in the commission Anoop Chandra Pandey announced the presidential election program in a press conference held at Vigyan Bhawan on Thursday.
Rajiv Kumar said that the notification for the post of President will be issued on June 15. Nominations can be made till June 29. All nominations can be done in Delhi only. The last date for withdrawal of nominations will be July 2.
Kumar added, in case of more than one candidate, the voting will be held on July 18 and the results will be declared on July 21. The counting of votes will take place under the supervision of the Returning Officer (General Secretary, Rajya Sabha) in Delhi.
He said that Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs and members of state legislatures (including Delhi and Puducherry Union Territories) vote for the President.
According to the Constitution, political parties cannot force their MLAs and MPs to vote for anyone in the elections for the post of President and Vice-President.
The Electoral College votes under proportional representation for the presidency. The members of the Electoral College vote on a priority basis.
According to the commission, voting can be done by writing one, two, and three in the numerals of different Indian languages​on the ballot papers. The number of marks will be determined by the number of candidates. The pen for casting vote on the ballot papers will be provided by the Election Commission itself.
As per commission, voting will be held in Parliament House and State Legislatures for the post of the President. In some special cases the polling station can be changed by giving prior information. MLAs or MPs imprisoned in jail can vote under parole rules. Also, as a precautionary measure, MPs and MLAs kept in jail can also vote.
The country has a total of 776 MPs and 4,033 MLAs. Presently the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir does not have a Legislative Assembly. The importance of the vote of legislators is based on the population of the state. Accordingly, the value of the vote of the total MPs is 5, 43,200 and the value of the vote of the total MLAs is 10, 86,431. The value of the vote to the MPs is 700.
At the same time, according to the Election Commission, the value of the vote of each member of the Legislative Assembly is as follows. Andhra Pradesh 159, Arunachal Pradesh 8, Assam 116, Bihar 173, Chhattisgarh 129, Goa 20, Gujarat 147, Haryana 112, Himachal Pradesh 51, Jharkhand 176, Karnataka 131, Madhya Pradesh 131, Kerala 152, Maharashtra 175, Manipur 18, Meghalaya 17, Mizoram 8, Nagaland 9, Odisha 149, Punjab 116, Rajasthan 129, Sikkim 7, Tamil Nadu 176, Telangana 132, Tripura 26, Uttarakhand 64, Uttar Pradesh 208, West Bengal 151, Delhi 58 and Puducherry 16.
