NEW DELHI: Election to the vice-president’s office must be held “as soon as possible” in the event of a vacancy caused by the death, resignation or removal of the incumbent, according to Article 63(2) of the Constitution. In the normal course, however, such an election must be held before expiration of term of the incumbent.A person who is elected to fill such vice-presidential vacancy caused by death, resignation or removal shall have a full term of five years.As per Article 66 of the Constitution, the vice-president is to be elected by an electoral college comprising members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The election follows the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote. In this system, the elector has to mark preferences against the names of the candidates. Preference can be marked in figures only and not in words. The elector can mark as many preferences as the number of candidates. While the marking of first preference is compulsory for the ballot paper to be valid, other preferences are optional.All MPs must vote by secret ballot.Election Commission conducts the election to the office of vice-president in accordance with Article 324 of the Constitution, read with Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952, and the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Rules, 1974.The current electoral college for election of the vice-president comprises 542 Lok Sabha members and 240 Rajya Sabha members. The value of vote of each MP is the same, that is, one.The election process will get underway with announcement of poll schedule by EC, followed by issue of the notification, after which candidates – who must be citizens of India, over 35 years of age and qualified for election to Rajya Sabha – can file their nominations. The returning officer for the election may be secretary general of Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha, and is appointed by EC in consultation with the central govt.Each nomination must be subscribed by at least 20 electors as proposers and 20 electors as seconders. A security deposit of Rs 15,000 is required to be made along with the nomination paper.Polling for a vice-presidential election is taken on Parliament premises only.For marking the vote, the poll panel will supply particular pens to electors in the polling station. Voting by using any other pen shall lead to invalidation of the vote at the time of counting.Political parties cannot issue any whip to their MPs in the matter of voting in the vice-presidential election.During counting, the number of first preference votes secured by each candidate is ascertained and added up. The total is divided by two and one is added to the quotient disregarding any remainder. The resulting number is the quota sufficient for a candidate to secure his return at the election. If at the end of the first or any subsequent count, the total number of votes credited to any candidate is equal to, or greater than the quota, that candidate is declared elected.