The 16th presidential election will be held on July 18, the election commission said today. Competitors need 50 votes as proposals and another 50 as seconds-a move aimed at eliminating less serious candidates. The candidate must deposit 15,000 as security. This was increased from 2,500 to 15,000 in 1997 when the total number of applicants and high schools was also increased from 10 to each of the previous ones.
The candidate must be a citizen of India and at least 35 years of age to be eligible to be elected to the House of Commons. The president has a term of five years. Anyone who holds a profitable position under a government or local authority cannot become president. The presidential election on July 18 is 16. The first took place in 1952. Experience from the first five elections showed that several people registered as candidates who did not even have a distant chance of being elected. Presidential candidates were then required to sign their nominations for at least 50 voters as proposals and 50 voters as seconds. No voter may enter more than one nomination in an election, either that of the chairman or the other. A maximum of four nominations may be submitted to or on behalf of the candidate or accepted by the returning officer. A motion to preside may be filed with the Supreme Court within 30 days of each candidate’s results or by 20 or more voters together as petitioners.
The amount of the deposit will be lost if the candidate is not selected and the number of valid votes he has checked is less than the number of votes needed to guarantee the candidate’s return. In other cases, the deposit will be returned to the tenderer. In the first presidential election of 1952, won by Rajendra Prasad, five candidates competed with the latter, winning only 533 votes. There have been only two participants since the 11th presidential election in 1997, when the rescue package and the number of proposals and seconds increased dramatically.
