As the election for India’s next president was held in 32 polling stations in Parliament and state Assemblies on Monday, nearly 99% of the members of the electoral college cast their votes.
“The voting was close to 99%. I think this would perhaps be the highest-ever percentage,” returning officer of presidential election Anoop Mishra said, according to Business Standard.
States such as Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Bihar, Haryana, Gujarat, Jharkhand, and Uttarakhand, recorded 100% voting, The Times of India reported.
The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha has a combined strength of 776 seats of which 771 MPs are eligible to caste their vote. While there are two vacancies each in the Lower House and the Upper House, one legislator, Chhedi Paswan, in the Lok Sabha does not have voting rights. A petition seeking his disqualification is pending in the Supreme Court. In July 2016, the Patna High Court had cancelled his Lok Sabha membership for not stating the total number of criminal cases pending against him in election affidavit.
Among the 4,109 MLAs eligible to vote, 4,083 cast their votes. The voting percentage for MPs was 99.61%, while it was 99.37% for MLAs, Mishra said.
The candidates for the position are Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance’s Ram Nath Kovind and the Opposition’s nominee Meira Kumar. The results will be announced on Thursday, July 20.
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