Indian and American Elections Differ
Counting will take place on July 20 in India’s presidential election, with the numbers stacked in favor of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party nominee Ram Nath Kovind to win the five-year term.
Though India’s president holds merely a ceremonial role — executive power resides with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Parliament — Kovind’s election looks likely to bolster Modi’s grip on power in the second most populous country in the world. Outgoing President Pranab Mukherjee, who was a member of rival party Indian National Congress before assuming the nonpartisan office, was elected before Modi came to power in 2014.
India and the U.S. are two of the largest democracies in the world, and while there are some similarities in their electoral systems, they diverge on some key points. Here are five of the biggest differences.
Campaigning
U.S. presidential elections effectively boil down to a two-party race where candidates campaign for more than a year, compete internally for their party nominations and eventually wait more than two months before the winner takes office. But in India, despite Kovind’s expected landslide win, major opposition parties banded together to campaign for former Parliament speaker Meira Kumar. India’s presidential election took place on July 17, just days before President Mukherjee’s term ends on July 24.
Casting of Votes
While India does have an electoral college system, there are 4,896 voters compared with the U.S.’s 538 Electoral College members. The people vote for national and state lawmakers, who in turn elect the president, unlike in the U.S., where electors are appointed party officials and obliged to give their votes to the candidate with the majority win in their states. After casting their votes, Indian electors must also list at least one second choice for president in case a candidate does not meet the vote quota, in which case their vote is transferred to their next choice.
Secrecy of Votes
Unlike voting for a bill or parliamentary motion, Indian electors are supposed to keep their votes secret. (In the U.S., how people vote is private, but many other voter data are public record.) The Indian Election Commission provided unique, numbered pens for electors this year to try to maintain vote secrecy after a 2016 parliamentary election controversy in which some voters used a non-regulation pen, causing 12 ballots to be invalidated and the BJP-backed candidate to win the seat in question. Likewise, political parties in India may not encourage or issue whips to their members for voting one way or another.
Counting of Votes
In India, votes are counted on a designated day that is often days or even weeks after voting. This year, votes were cast on Monday, July 17, and will be counted and announced Thursday, July 20. The value of a member of the Legislative Assembly’s votes depends on the population of his or her state — as in the U.S., where the number of electors per state depends on its population. However, the value of a member of Parliament’s vote remains the same regardless of population.
Winning the Popular Vote
Because in India the people vote for legislators who then elect the president, a candidate can’t win the popular vote and still lose the election. That’s unlike the U.S.’s winner-take-all system, which was apparent during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, where Democrat Hillary Clinton won by 3 million ballots, but Republican Donald Trump clinched 306 electoral votes and the presidency.
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5 Ways India’s Presidential Election is Unique originally appeared on usnews.com
