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 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:
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(i)
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Issue of Election Commission’s notification
calling the election
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06-07-2012 (Friday)
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(ii)
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Last date of making nominations
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20-07-2012 (Friday)
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(iii)
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Date for the Scrutiny of nominations
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21-07-2012 (Saturday)
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(iv)
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Last date for the withdrawal of candidatures
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23-07-2012 (Monday)
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(v)
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Date on which a poll shall, if necessary, be
taken
Hours of poll
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07-08-2012 (Tuesday)
10.00 A.M. to 5.00 P.M.
|
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(vi)
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Date on which counting, if required, shall be
taken
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07-08-2012 (Tuesday)
At 6.00 P.M.
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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 twenty electors 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).
Election
Commission of India
New Delhi,
Asadha 12, 1934/July 03, 2012
RM/