- Election Commission announces presidential election
- Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, BJP candidate likely to become President due to overcrowding in some states
- No political party will be able to issue a whip, all corona protocols will be implemented at the time of voting
New Delhi: The Election Commission on Thursday announced the election for the next President of the country on July 15, in which 4,308 MPs and MLAs will vote to select Ramnath Kovind's successor. With this, the country will get its 13th President on the 21st. However, with Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and many other states having governments, the BJP candidate is more likely to win the presidential election easily.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Thursday said that the manifesto for the presidential election has been released. Candidates will be able to fill up the candidature form from 15th June and the last date for filling up the candidature form is 6th June. Ramnath Kovind's term ends on July 8. Kumar said that the Election Commission is fully prepared to conduct the elections in a fair and free manner while all the protocols related to the security of Koro during polling and counting of votes in this election will be implemented and every process will be videographed.
The Chief Election Commissioner said that now no political party can issue any kind of whip. The scrutiny of nominations will take place on June 30 and the candidature can be withdrawn till July 3. If necessary, polling will be held on July 15 and counting of votes will be held on July 31. The Election Commission will provide special ink pens for voting. Voters will have to rank 1, 2, 3 to vote for the candidate of their choice. If the winner is not decided by the votes of the first choice, then the votes of the voters are counted as new votes of the second choice in the account of the candidate. This is why it is called a single transferable vote.
Kumar said that in this election, out of a total of 4,608 voters, there are 6 MPs and 2,08 MLAs. Voting for the presidential election will take place on the premises of Parliament and state legislatures while the Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha will be the Returning Officer. MPs usually vote in parliament while legislators vote in their state legislature. In the presidential election, only elected MPs from both the Houses of Parliament and MLAs from all the states, including the Union Territories of Delhi and Puducherry, can cast their votes.
Nominated MPs in the Rajya Sabha or members of the State Legislative Councils are not elected candidates so they cannot vote in the Presidential elections. Also, the general public cannot vote in the presidential election. Voting in the presidential election is through a single transferable vote system. This means that only one member of Rajya Sabha, Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly can cast one vote. The last vote for the presidency was held in 2012. The counting of votes was completed on July 30. In which Ramnath Kovind became the President by defeating his nearest rival Meira Kumar by 2,5,50 votes.
