With regard to the ensuing presidential poll, the state assembly secretariat has dispatched instructions on the voting format to all state legislators. The election department is all set for the poll with the ballot sheets being ready both for MLAs and MPs.
“The printing of ballot sheets required for the presidential elections is already finished. MPs and MLAs will be given separate ballot sheets, both in Tamil and English,” state CEO Praveen Kumar told DC Thursday.
Asked whether any training classes would be conducted for the MLA’s on the voting procedure, Mr Kumar said there won’t be any training sessions.
“Assistant returning officer (Assembly secretary) has sent each MLA instructions by post on conduct of voting for the presidential polls,” the CEO noted. The letter carries all details of the election, including that of single transferable preferential voting method, where the voter can specify his preference of the candidates by marking 1 or 2 against their names, said an Assembly secretariat official.
MPs who desire to vote in the state have to intimate the EC in advance since parliamentarians vote only in New Delhi in presidential elections. “The parliamentarians preferring to vote in Chennai have to apply at ECI, New Delhi, which would inform us so that we can make arrangements for them,” Mr. Kumar noted.
Election officials said the state has a total vote of 81,540 in the electoral college as 234 TN MLA votes account for 41,184 as value of each of their vote is fixed at 176. The votes of 18 Rajya Sabha members and 39 Lok Sabha members add up to a value of 40,356.
While the value of an MP’s vote (708) is the same across the country, the vote of TN MLAs is the second most valuable in the country after that of Uttar Pradesh MLA vote rated at 208, as per calculations based on 1971 population census.