The election to the Office of the Vice President,  to be held on 10^th of this month, is the thirteenth.  The earlier elections to this office were held in the years 1952, 1957 (both uncontested), 1962, 1967, 1969, 1974, 1979 (unopposed), 1984, 1987, 1992, 1997 and 2002.

Under the provisions of  Article 66(1) of Constitution of India, the Vice-President shall be elected by the members of an Electoral College consisting of Members of both the Houses of Parliament.

The nominated members of both the Houses of Parliament (2 from  Lok Sabha and 12 from Rajya Sabha) are also eligible to be included in the Electoral College along with the elected members of both the  Houses of Parliament.

The Members of Legislative Assemblies are not eligible to be included in the Electoral College for the Vice-Presidential election.

The  present strength of the Electoral College:  

Rajya Sabha:

Elected              -           233

Nominated             -              12

 Lok Sabha:

Elected              -           543

Nominated             -                2

TOTAL                          790

Under the provisions of Article 67, the Vice-President shall hold office for a term of five years from the date on which he enters upon his office and under the provisions of clause (c) of Article 67, the Vice-President shall, not withstanding the expiration of his term, continue to hold office until his successor enters upon his office.

No person shall be eligible for election as Vice-President unless he:

a)       is a citizen of India;

b)       has completed the age of 35 years; and

is qualified for election as a member of the Council of States (Article      66).

A person shall not be eligible for election as Vice-President if he holds any office of profit under the Government of India or the Government of any State or under any Local or other Authority subject to the control of any of said Governments.

However, a person shall not be deemed to hold any office of profit by reason only that he is the President or Vice-President of the Union or the Governor of any State or is a Minister either for the Union or for any State.

Detailed provisions regarding the election are contained in the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952 (No.31 of 1952) and the rules made thereunder, viz. the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Rules, 1974.

A prospective Vice-Presidential candidate should get his nomination paper subscribed to by at least 20 electors as proposers and at least 20 electors as seconders.

The election to the office of the Vice-President shall be held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote and the voting at such election shall be by secret ballot.

The value of vote of each Member of Parliament is  ONE.

The manner of voting at Vice-Presidential Election is contained in Rule 17 of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Rules, 1974.

The ballot paper does not contain any election symbol. There will be two columns in the ballot paper. Column 1 of the ballot paper contains the heading “Name of Candidate”, and Column 2 contains the heading “Mark order of preference”. 

Each elector shall have as many preferences as there are candidates but no ballot paper shall be considered invalid solely on the ground that all such preferences are not marked.

After counting the total valid votes polled by each candidate, the Returning Officer totals up the valid votes polled by all the contesting candidates. The quota for declaring a candidate as elected is determined by dividing the total valid votes by 2 and adding one to the quotient, ignoring the remainder, if any. For example, assuming the total of valid votes polled by all candidates is 789, the quota required for getting elected is:

  789

——— +1 = 394.50 + 1 [Ignore .50]

  2

Quota = 394 + 1 = 395

After ascertaining the quota, the Returning Officer has to see whether any candidate secured the quota for being declared as elected on the basis of the total of first preference votes polled by him/her.

If no candidate gets the quota on the basis of first preference votes, then the Returning Officer proceeds further to second round of counting during which the candidate having lowest number of votes of first preference is excluded and his votes are distributed among the remaining candidates according to the second preference marked on these ballot papers. The other continuing candidates receive the votes of excluded candidate at the same value of ONE.

The Returning Officer will go on excluding the candidates with lowest number of votes in subsequent rounds of counting till either one of the continuing candidates gets the required quota or till only one candidate remains in the field as the sole continuing candidate and declares him/her as elected.

Members in respect of whom the appropriate Court, i.e. High Court or Supreme Court, has given a limited stay of operation of the order of setting aside of his election by the Court, are not entitled to vote at the election, though their names would have been included in the electoral college.

In the event of any dispute arising out of the Vice President Election  -

(i)       An election petition calling in question an election to the office of Vice-President may be presented by any candidate at such election or by any ten or more electors joined together as petitioners.

(ii)    The authority having jurisdiction to try such election petition, is the Supreme Court of India.

(iii)    An election petition may be presented within 30 days from the date of publication of the declaration containing the name of the returned candidate.

(For more details, please download  background material titled “Election to the office of the Vice President of India 2007” brought out by the Election Commission of India  from  www.eci.gov.in)

RM/AMA-020807 Vice Presidential Elections