Ram Nath Kovind vs Meira Kumar: How votes are counted and President-elect is declared
Ram Nath Kovind is likely to be announced the President-elect when the Presidential Election 2017 result is declared by evening today. The counting of votes is underway.
In Short
- Votes polled in states are counted first in the Presidential Election.
- Votes of Member of Parliament are counted in one lot.
- After counting of votes, the quota to win is determined.
The Presidential Election 2017 - a direct fight between NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind and Meira Kumar of the UPA - saw a record 99 per cent voting on July 17.
With the pre-poll backing of about 70 per cent of the Electoral College of 4,896 Electors, Ram Nath Kovind is all set to be declared the President-elect.
The votes are being counted. As the electronic voting machines were not used in the Presidential Election, the counting of votes would be done manually. The result of the electoral contest between Ram Nath Kovind and Meira Kumar is expected evening today.
THE VALID VOTES
Presidential Election in India is held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. The voting is done by secret ballot.
Unlike the Lok Sabha or Vidhan Sabha elections, the ballot paper in the Presidential Election does not contain any election symbol. The office of the President is considered above party politics and free from political ideology.
The ballot paper has two columns with the headings 'Name of Candidate' and "Order of Preference". Each Elector may mention as many preferences as there are contesting candidates. However, if an Elector does not want to place his/her preferences on the ballot paper, the vote cannot be declared invalid on this ground.
The preferences are to be marked in numbers and must not be indicated in words.
COUNTING OF VOTES
The Returning Officer begins the process of counting by segregating the votes from States and the two Houses of Parliament. The votes polled in States are counted first.
The Returning Officer counts the votes State wise in so far as the votes are cast by the members of each Legislative Assembly. The votes cast by the Members of Parliament are counted in one lot.
The Returning Officer scrutinizes the ballot papers for separating valid votes from invalid ones. The valid ballot papers are put in the tray meant for the candidate to whom the first preference is marked.
After distributing the ballot papers of one State, the Returning Officer totals the valid ballot papers credited to each candidate. The figure arrived at is multiplied by the value of each vote for the respective State. The aggregate value is credited to the candidate as the total value of votes secured.
The process is repeated for each of the 29 States and two Union Territories of Delhi and Puducherry. This is followed by counting of votes polled in Parliament in the same manner.
Once the counting of votes is complete, the Returning Officer calculates the grand total of the votes secured by each contestant.
THE WINNING VOTE
Unlike the elections for the Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha or other constitutional representative bodies, the winning candidate needs to secure more than 50 per cent of the total votes polled. Technically, this threshold vote is called the quota.
The quota for declaring a candidate as elected in the Presidential Election is determined by dividing of the valid votes by two and adding one to the quotient. The remainder is ignored.
For example, suppose the total value of valid votes polled by all candidates is 1,00,001. The quota required for getting elected is: 1,00,001/2 + 1= 50,000.50 + 1. 0.50 would be ignored to arrive at the quota for Presidential Election at 50,001.
AFTER COUNTING AND FIXING QUOTA
The Returning Officer has to see whether any candidate secured the quota for being declared as elected on the basis of the total value of first preference votes polled by him/her.
If no candidate gets the quota, the Returning Officer, in the second round of counting, excludes the candidate having lowest value of votes from the electoral race. The votes polled by the excluded candidate are distributed among the rest on the basis of second preference.
The process of exclusion and redistribution of votes based on further preferences is repeated till one of the continuing candidates does not get the required quota. In the Presidential Election 2017, this process of exclusion and redistribution of votes is not required as Ram Nath Kovind and Meira Kumar are the only contestants.
In the present case, the total value of the votes of the Electoral College was 10,98,903. About 99 per cent voting was registered on the day of polling. This takes the total value of votes polled to 10,87,913.97.
This means, Ram Nath Kovind or Meira Kumar needs to secure 54,3957 votes (ignoring fraction) to be declared President-elect this evening.
WHAT IF THERE IS SOME DISPUTE
Most of the Presidential Elections have ended in courts. A petition challenging the an election to the office of the President can only be filed in the Supreme Court.
The election petition can be filed only one of the candidates or by any twenty or more electors joined together as petitioners. The petition has to be filed in the Supreme Court within 30 days of the election result being notified in the official gazette.
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