Vice President election: Election Commission begins preparations, schedule soon

The Election Commission has begun preparations for the Vice President's election and will announce the poll schedule soon, the panel said on Wednesday.

It has started work on three key activities: One, preparing the electoral college comprising elected and nominated members of the Rajya Sabha (RS) and Lok Sabha (LS). Two, finalising the returning officer and assistant returning officers. And three, compiling and sharing background material on previous VP elections.

The poll panel began the process soon after the Ministry of Home Affairs, on July 22, notified the surprise resignation of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar. The Vice President's election is governed by the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952. Under Article 324, the Election Commission is mandated to conduct the election to the office of the Vice President.


Electoral College
All 788 members of Parliament -- 543 LS members and 245 RS members -- can vote. Currently, given the vacancies, it is likely 786 MPs will be able to vote.

Single transferable vote
Unlike the presidential election (where the value of votes cast by the MPs and various state legislative assemblies is different), the value of every vote cast in the VP election has the same value of 'one'. Voting is by 'secret ballot'. Therefore, members of the Electoral College are not bound by any party whip.

The Voting
Every elector has the option to mark as many preferences as the number of contesting candidates.

Ballot papers for the Vice President's election are printed in pink and carry two columns -- one listing the names of the candidates and the other for electors to mark their preferences using specially provided Election Commission pens.

So, every MP has to mark the ballot paper by numbering against the names of candidates in order of preference, by placing the figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on. However, only the marking of first preference is compulsory for a ballot paper to be valid.

The winner
The winning candidate must secure the required quota of votes to be declared elected, which is 50% of the valid votes cast plus one.

If there are only two contesting candidates, the result is decided in the first round of counting, as the candidate with more votes automatically crosses the quota.

However, if there are multiple candidates and no one reaches the quota in the first round, counting continues through a process of elimination. The candidate with the fewest votes is excluded, and their ballot papers are redistributed among the remaining candidates based on the next available preference marked. This process continues until a candidate secures the required quota.

Returning Officer
By convention, the Secretary General, LS or the Secretary General, RS is appointed by the ECI as the Returning Officer, by rotation. Two other senior officers of the LS/RS Secretariat are appointed Assistant ROs. Usually, the voting and counting are done on the same day.