14th Vice Presidential Elections in India


1. The term of office of Mohd. Hamid Ansari, Vice-President of India, is upto 10th August 2012. An election to fill the vacancy caused by the expiration of the term of office of the outgoing Vice-President shall need to be completed before the expiration of  his term. The law provides that the notification for election shall be issued on, or as  soon as conveniently may be after, the sixtieth day before the expiry of term of the office  of the outgoing Vice-President.

2. Article 324 of the Constitution read with the Presidential and VicePresidential Elections Act, 1952 and the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Rules, 1974, vests the superintendence, direction and control of the conduct of election to the office of the Vice-President of India in the Election Commission of India. The Election Commission is mandated to ensure that the election to the office of the VicePresident of India must be a free and fair election  and the Commission is taking all necessary steps for discharging its responsibility.

3. The Vice-President is elected by the members of the Electoral College consisting of the members of both Houses of Parliament in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. The nominated Members of  both Rajya Sabha  and Lok Sabha are also eligible to be included in the Electoral College and, therefore, they are entitled to participate in the election.

4. The Electoral College for the present election of the Vice-President consists of the following members:

a) Rajya Sabha:
        Elected = 233
        Nominated = 12
b) Lok Sabha:
        Elected = 543
        Nominated = 2
        TOTAL = 790

5. The Election Commission, in consultation with the Central Government, has decided to appoint the Secretary General to the Lok Sabha as the Returning Officer for the election. The Commission has also decided to appoint Assistant Returning Officer from amongst the officers of the Lok Sabha Secretariat to assist the Returning Officer.

6. In pursuance of sub-section (1) of section (4) of the Presidential and VicePresidential Elections Act, 1952, the Election Commission of India has fixed the following programme for the election to fill the office of the Vice-President of India:

(i)
Issue of Election Commission’s
notification calling the election
06-07-2012 (Friday)
(ii)
Last date of making nominations
20-07-2012 (Friday)
(iii)
Date for the Scrutiny of nominations
21-07-2012 (Saturday)
(iv)
Last date for the withdrawal of
candidatures
23-07-2012 (Monday)
(v)
Date on which a poll shall, if
necessary, be taken
Hours of poll
07-08-2012 (Tuesday)
10.00 A.M. to 5.00 P.M.
(vi)
Date on which counting, if required,
shall be taken
07-08-2012 (Tuesday)
At 6.00 P.M.