55. Manner of election of President.—
(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;
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1. Ins. by the Constitution (Seventieth Amendment) Act, 1992, s. 2 (w.e.f. 1-6-1995).
* Now Puducherry vide the Pondicherry (Alteration of Name) Act, 2006 (44 of 2006),
s. 3 (w.e.f. 1-10-2006).
26
27 THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA
(Part V.—The Union)
(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.
1
[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 2[2026] have been
published, be construed as a reference to the 1971 census.]
