Election to the Office of the Vice-President, 2012 (14th Vice-Presidential Election)

            The term of office of Mohd. Hamid Ansari, Vice-President of India, is upto 10^th 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 Vice-Presidential 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 Vice-President 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 Vice-Presidential 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.

7.         The nomination paper of a candidate must be delivered to the Returning Officer at New Delhi in the place to be specified by him by a public notice either by the candidate or by any of his proposers or seconders between 11.00 a.m. and 3.00 p.m. A nomination paper of a candidate has to be subscribed by at least twenty electors as proposers and at least twentyelectors as seconders. An elector can subscribe to only one nomination paper of a candidate as either a proposer or seconder. The security deposit for the election is Rs. 15,000/- (Rupees fifteen thousand only), which is required to be made along with the nomination paper.

8.         The list of Members of the Electoral College maintained by the Commission for the Vice-Presidential Election, 2012 is available in English & Hindi separately for sale @ Rs.50/ per copy from the counter opened in the premises of the Election Commission. Electoral College for the Vice-Presidential Election, 2012 is also available in the Commission’s web-site (http://www.eci.nic.in).