Constitution Section 55 — Manner of election of President
Part V — THE UNION — The President and Vice-President
Constitutional
Summary
The election of the President is designed to balance the voting power of states and the Union. Each state's elected legislative assembly members get votes based on that state's population divided by the number of its assembly members, with an extra vote added if the remainder is 500 or more. Members of Parliament then get votes equal to the total of all state assembly votes divided by the total number of elected MPs, rounding up fractions over half. The election uses a system where voters rank candidates, and voting is done by secret ballot. For this calculation, "population" refers to the 1971 census figures until the first census after 2026 is published.
Official Text
(1) As far as practicable, there shall be uniformity in the scale of representation of the different States at the election of the President.
(2) For the purpose of securing such uniformity among the States inter se as well as parity between the States as a whole and the Union, the number of votes which each elected member of Parliament and of the Legislative Assembly of each State is entitled to cast at such election shall be determined in the following manner:—
(a) every elected member of the Legislative Assembly of a State shall have as many votes as there are multiples of one thousand in the quotient obtained by dividing the population of the State by the total number of the elected members of the Assembly;
(b) if, after taking the said multiples of one thousand, the remainder is not less than five hundred, then the vote of each member referred to in sub-clause (a) shall be further increased by one;
(c) each elected member of either House of Parliament shall have such number of votes as may be obtained by dividing the total number of votes assigned to the members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States under sub-clauses
(a) and
(b) by the total number of the elected members of both Houses of Parliament, fractions exceeding one-half being counted as one and other fractions being disregarded.
(3) The election of the 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.Explanation.—In this article, the expression “population” means the population as ascertained at the last preceding census of which the relevant figures have been published:Provided that the reference in this Explanation to the last preceding census of which the relevant figures have been published shall, until the relevant figures for the first census taken after the year 2026 have been published, be construed as a reference to the 1971 census.