As India gets ready to elect its 12th President – possibly the first ever woman President – here is a look at the process that will decide who gets to be  India's next President.

The term of office of the current President, Dr. A. P. J.  Abdul Kalam, ends on 24th July, 2007. Therefore an election for the next President of India is due before that day. The electoral college for the election consistes of

(a) the elected members of both Houses of the Parliament, and

(b) the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States including NCT of Delhi and Union territory of Puducherry. 

Rule 17 of the Presidential and Vice- Presidential Elections Rules, 1974 conatins the manner of voting for the Presidential elections. The ballot paper will have two columns – one having the heading "Name of Candidate" and the other having the heading "Mark order of preference". An elector votes by placing the number 1 against his first choice for the President. In addition, he can, if he wants, place numbers 2,3,4 against the other candidates as per his preference.

Another important thing about the voting for the president is the value of the vote of each elector. The value of vote of each elector is predetermined acoording to the following formula.

The total numbers of voters for the Presidential Elections, 2007 are :

(a) Rajya Sabha         = 233

(b) Lok Sabha             =  543

(c) State Assemblies  = 4120

           Total                 = 4896

The value of vote of each member of the legislative assembly is based on the number of elective seats in the state and the population of the state (as per 1971 census). 

For example, Himachal Pradesh has 68 elective assembly seats and a population of 3460434. Thus the value of each elector's vote ( equal to the population / (number of elective seats X 1000)) works out to be 51 for Himachal Pradesh.  The total number of votes for HP then can be worked out (Value of vote of each elector X the number of elective seats in the state) to be 3468.

The total number of votes from all the states sums up to be 549474.

The total number of members in the parliament are 233 (Rajya Sabha) + 543 (Lok Sabha) =776

Therefore, the value of each vote = 549474/776 = 708.085 =708

Total value of votes of the members of Parliament =708  x 776 = 549408

Thus,  the total value of votes for the 4896 electors are = 549408 + 549474 = 1098882

The elections are held in accordance with the system of Proportional Representation by means of the single transferable vote and the voting is held as a secret ballot. After the elections are held, the returning Officer totals the value of all valid votes cast. To determine how many votes a candidate needs to be declared a winner the total value of valid votes cast is divided by 2, and one is added to the quotient. If no candidate gets the quota  then in the second round the candidate having the least number of first preference votes is excluded and his votes are distributed among the rest of the canddiates on the basis of the second preference. This continues till a candidate gets the required number of votes that is required to declare him winner.

 This is the way India elects her first citizen.

As India gets ready to elect its 12th President – possibly the first ever woman President – here is a look at the process that will decide who gets to be  India's next President.