The
term of office of Mohd. Hamid Ansari, Vice-President of India, is up to 10th
August 2017. An election to fill the vacancy to be caused by the expiration of
the term of office of the outgoing Vice-President needs to be completed before
the expiration of the term of the present incunbent. The law provides that the
notification for election may be issued on, or as soon as conveniently may be
after, the sixtieth day before the expiry of term of the office of the outgoing
Vice-President.
2. Article
324 of the Constitution read with the Presidential and Vice-Presidential
Elections Act, 1952 and the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Rules,
1974, vests the superintendence, direction and control of the conduct of
election to the office of the Vice-President of India in the Election
Commission of India. The Election Commission is mandated to ensure that the
election to the office of the Vice-President of India must be a free and fair
election. The Commission is taking all necessary steps for discharging the
responsibility.
3. The
Vice-President is elected by the members of the Electoral College consisting of
the members of both Houses of Parliament in accordance with the system of
proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. The
nominated Members of Rajya Sabha as well as of Lok Sabha are also eligible to
be included in the Electoral College and, therefore, are entitled to
participate in the election.
4. The
Electoral College for the present election of the Vice-President consists of
the following members:
Rajya Sabha:
Elected = 233
Nominated = 12
a)
Lok Sabha:
Elected = 543
Nominated = 2
TOTAL = 790
5. The
Election Commission, in consultation with the Central Government, has decided
to appoint the Secretary General to the Rajya Sabha as the Returning Officer
for the election. The Commission has also decided to appoint Assistant
Returning Officers from amongst the officers of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat to
assist the Returning Officer.
6. In
pursuance of sub-section (1) of section (4) of the Presidential and
Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952, the Election Commission of India has
fixed the programme for the election to fill the office of the Vice-President
of India as given below.
|
(i)
|
Issue
of Election Commission’s notification calling the election
|
04.07.2017 (Tuesday)
|
|
(ii)
|
Last
date of making nominations
|
18.07.2017
(Tuesday)
|
|
(iii)
|
Date
for the Scrutiny of nominations
|
19.07.2017
(Wednesday)
|
|
(iv)
|
Last
date for the withdrawal of candidatures
|
21.07.2017
(Friday)
|
|
(v)
|
Date
on which a poll shall, if necessary, be taken
|
05.08.2017
(Saturday)
|
|
(vi)
|
Hours
of poll
|
10.00
am to 5.00 pm
|
|
(vii)
|
Date
on which counting, if required, shall be taken
|
05.08.2017
(Saturday)
|
7. The
nomination paper of a candidate must be delivered to the Returning Officer at
New Delhi at the place to be specified by him by a public notice either by the
candidate or by any of his proposers or seconders between 11.00 a.m. and 3.00
p.m. A nomination paper of a candidate has to be subscribed by at least twenty
electors as proposers and at least another twenty electors as seconders.
An elector can subscribe to only one nomination paper of a candidate as either
a proposer or seconder. The security deposit for the election is Rs. 15,000/-
(Rupees fifteen thousand only), which is required to be made along with the
nomination paper.
8. The
list of Members of the Electoral College maintained by the Commission for the Vice-Presidential
Election, 2017 will be made available in English & Hindi separately, after
publication, for sale @ Rs.50/ per copy from the counter opened in the premises
of the Election Commission. Electoral College for the Vice-Presidential
Election, 2017 is also available in the Commission’s web-site
(http://www.eci.nic.in).
Election
Commission of India
New Delhi: 29th
June, 2017
RM/ RS