By IANS
New Delhi : Although the process of declaring a winner in the Indian presidential election is a complicated process, it will be easier in this battle since there are only two candidates.
The results will be announced Saturday after intense calculations. In normal circumstances, this process would include dropping candidates who get the lowest votes in each round of counting.
The voters – who are MPs and legislators from states – can register their votes on the ballot paper according to their preference.
They can write “1” in the space opposite the name of the candidate they have chosen as their first preference. In addition, they can mark as many subsequent preferences as they want by putting the figures 2, 3 and 4 and so on against names of other candidates, in order of their choice.
According to the Election Commission, the candidate as elected by dividing the total value of valid votes by two and adding one to the quotient.
For example, the total valid votes in Thursday’s election are 1.09 million. The returning officer will declare the winner if he or she gets 549,001 votes (1.098/2 = 549,000+1)
The returning officer will be able to declare the winner in the first round itself as there are only two contenders and because the ruling alliance candidate, Pratibha Patil, is projected to get the maximum number of votes.
But if no candidate gets the majority in the first preference votes, then there will be a second round of counting during which the candidate with the least value of first preference votes is excluded.
The value of the MPs’ vote is 708 and of MLAs varies according to the population of the state.
When a candidate gets dropped, his votes can be distributed among those still in the race according to the second preference choice.
The returning officer will go on excluding the candidates with the least number of votes in subsequent rounds of counting till one candidate remains in the field, who will be declared winner.