The election of the President of India is not direct. He is elected by indirect election. An electoral college is constituted which consists of all the elected members of both the Houses of Parliament and of all Legislative Assemblies of all the states. Each member of this electoral college has only one vote but he can indicate his order of preferences of his choice on the ballot paper as 1,2,3, and so on against the name of the candidates. Thus, the President is elected by proportional representation method with the single transferable vote system:

Qualifications of the candidates for the office of the President are:

1. He should be a citizen of India.

2. He should have completed the age of 35.

3. He should be qualified for election as a member of the Lok Sabha.

The number of votes of a member of Assembly is calculated by the formula:

Value of a vote of a member of the Assembly:

Or

V = Population of the State / Number of the elected members of an Assembly of that state  ÷ 1000

The value of vote of M.P. = Total number of votes of 

all states Assemblies / The number of the elected Members of Parliament

Quota is determined in order to declare a candidate elceted.

Q = Total number of votes polled / No. of members to be elected + 1 / +1

Single Transferable Vote System: The election of the President is held through single transferable vote system of proportional representation. Under this system names of all the candidates are listed on the ballot paper and the elector gives them numbers according to on his / her preference. Every voter may mark the ballot paper as many preferences as there are candidates. Thus the elector shall place the figure 1 opposite the name of the candidate whom he/she chooses for first preference and may mark as many preferences as he / she wishes by putting the figures 2,3,4 and so on against the names of other candidates. The ballot becomes invalid if first preference is marked against more than one candidate or if the first preference is not marked at all.