Unlike the conventional ballot voting system, where the voter polls only for a single candidate of his choice, the presidential election follows the Single Transferable Vote system. According to this, each voter marks out his or her preference for the presidential candidate. If there are five candidates for example, the voter will give five preferences, making his or her most preferred candidate as the top choice, and accordingly for the rest of the candidates. It is mandatory to give a first preference, as the vote will be declared invalid in its absence. The voter can leave other preferences vacant.
It is not just the most first preferences that decides the winner, but it’s the total number of valid votes that decides how many votes a candidate needs in order to be declared winner. This number is divided by two, and added to one to form the benchmark of winning. The total combined value of votes in the Presidential elections is 10, 98,903. It is divided as 5, 49,408 for MPs and 5, 49,495 for MLAs.
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