Election of the President of India

The President
The Article 52 of the constitution explicitly states, there shall be a President for
the Union of India. So the President along with Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha is a
part of legislature. The President besides being the chief executive of the state
also supervises he general administration. Article 53 cleary states that the
executive powers of the Union shall be vested in the hands of the President. In
India, President is a nominal executive head and discharge his duties as
constitutional head of the state, though the day to day administration is rub by
the real executive comprising of Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, it is
carried out in the name of the President. The 44th amendment to the constitution
curtailed the powers of the President and made him to act on the advice of the
Council of Ministers. The President shall hold the office for a term of 5 years from
the date on which he enters upon his office.
Qualifications

Must be a citizen of India

Must have attained the age of 35 years.
Must have attained all qualifications that of a member of Lok Sabha.
Should not hold an office of profit-national, state or local.
Should not be of unsound mind or an insolvent or bankrupt.
Should abide by constitution.

Election of the President

The President of India is not directly elected by the people. Article 54 of the
Indian constitution provides that the President shall be elected by an electoral
college consisting of :
a) the elected members of both house of parliament; and
b) the elected members of the legislative Assemblies of the States.

The Constitution (70th amendment) Act,1992 has added a new explanation to

Article 54 which provides that the word state includes the National Capital
Territory of Delhi and the Union Territory of Pondicherry. This means that the
M.L.As of the National territory Delhi and the Union territory will be included in
the electoral college of the President.
The nominated members of the above House at the center and the stats do not
have voting rights in the election of President. The election of President shall be
held in accordance with the system of Proportional representation by means of
single transferrable vote as per Article 55(3) of the constitution. The system
adopted for voting is a secret ballot.
The system of proportional representation can be best understood in the below
given example.
The population of Tamil Nadu 6, 00, 00,000
No, of T.N. Assembly seats - 234
6, 00, 00,000/234 - 256
Approximately each member of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly will get 256
votes and the total votes cast by the members of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly
will be 256 234 = 59,904 votes.
Mode of Voting
Under the Constitution, the election of the President must be held in accordance
with the system of proportional representation by means of the single
transferrable vote. The voting system works in the following manner -:
Let us suppose that there are 4 candidates A,B,C,D and total number of valid
votes is 5000. A candidate must secure at least 250, first preference votes. In the
count, A, B, C, D have poled as follows:
A=2100
B=1500
C=850
D=550

No candidate has secured a minimum of 2501 votes. D, having obtained the least
number of votes, would be first eliminated and the number of second preference
votes in his ballot papers would be transferred to the remaining candidates.
Suppose the second preference goes in Ds ballot papers are A420, B=80, C=50
These would be transferred and added to the first preference votes in favor of A,
B, C, as follows:
A=2011+420 2520
B= 1500 + 80 = 1580
C= 850 + 50 = 900
A has emerged successfully, having obtained maximum votes, that is more than
half of the valid votes.