The election for the next President of India will be held on July 18, the Election Commission said on June 9. The counting will take place on July 21, the poll panel said.
The term of the current President Ram Nath Kovind ends on July 24 and an election for the next president has to be held before that day.
Announcing the schedule for electing the 15th President of India, chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that the notification for the voting will be issued on June 15, the last date of filing nomination will be June 29, the date of scrutiny of candidates will be June 30 and the last date of withdrawing nominations would be July 2.
"The voting will be held on July 18 and the counting, if required on July 21," Kumar said.
In 2017, the presidential polls were held on July 17 and the counting took place on July 20. Then, National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) candidate Ram Nath Kovind bagged 661,278 votes (65.65 percent) while Congress-led Opposition’s Meira Kumar won 434,241 votes (34.35 percent).
READ | Explained: How is the President of India elected?
The President is elected by the members of the electoral college consisting of elected members of both houses of Parliament, and elected members of the legislative assemblies of all states including the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
So, the electoral college has 776 members of Parliament (543 Lok Sabha MPs, 233 Rajya Sabha MPs), and 4,809 members of state legislative assemblies. The value of electoral college has 10,86,431 votes.
The value of the vote of each elector (MP/MLA) is predetermined. For each MP, the value is fixed at 708. For an MLA, this value is determined by a formula involving the population (based on the 1971 Census) of the state he/she represents. Hence, the value differs from state to state.
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