Prez polls: Who votes and how?

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The President of India is elected by an electoral college, comprising the Members of both the Houses of Parliament as well as the MLAs of all state Assemblies.

The total number of members in the Electoral College for the Presidential elections in 2007 is 4896 (233 Rajya Sabha MPs + 543 Lok Sabha MPs + 4,120 State MLAs).

However, unlike any other election, the value of votes of the voters are different here. While the value of votes of each MP is the same, the strength of a vote of an MLA is determined by way of proportional representation.

The MPs, too, have a specific value for each vote that is determined by dividing the total value of votes of all the states by the total number of elected members of Parliament (Lok Sabha 543 + Rajya Sabha 233).

The total value of votes of all members of each State Assembly is worked out by multiplying the number of elective seats in the Assembly by the number of votes for each member.

For instance, in case of Andhra Pradesh, since the total population (1971 Census) is 43,502,708 and the total number of elective seats in the Assembly 294, the number of votes for each member would be 43,502,708/1000 x 294 = 147.96 or 148. This means the value of each Andhra MLA's vote is 148.

Now multiplying that number with the number of elective seats can give the value of total votes for the all members of the House:

294x148 = 43,512

The Constitution (Eighty-fourth) Amendment Act, 2001 provides that until the relevant population figures for the first census to be taken after the year 2026 have been published, the population of the states for the purposes of calculation of the value of votes for the Presidential Election shall mean the population as ascertained at the 1971-census.

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