Bird eye view of Preferential Voting System in ICAI Election

Respected Professional Colleagues,

ICAI Triennial Elections 2021 to the Central Council & Regional Councils Bird Eye View on ICAI Unique Preferential Voting System (Central Region)

As you are aware that ICAI Elections for Central Council & Regional Councils are scheduled on 03rd and 04th December 2021 and therefore I feel it appropriate to share with you information on Preferential voting system being followed by our esteemed Institute. In other words, it’s called a Preferential Voting System.

Each Voter (a member of the ICAI irrespective of whether he holds Certificate of Practice ‘COP’ or Works in Industry or in Business) can vote for Central Council as well as Regional Council Elections.

For Central Region, In all 6 candidates will be elected to Central Council from Central Region and 12 candidates will be elected to CIRC (Regional Council).

On the ballot paper, to cast a formal vote:

Place a one or (1) in the box beside your first preference;

a two or (2) in the box beside your second preference;

a three or (3) in the box beside your third preference; and

Continue numbering until all of the boxes are numbered.

ILLUSTRATION: ASSUMPTION

Of candidates	10
Of candidates to be selected	5
Of valid votes cast	3000

Quota for election : [3,000 ÷ (5+1)]+1= 501

For the purpose of simplification the quota for this illustration is taken to be 500 votes thus who crosses 500 votes will be elected.

1. Distribution of votes:

Candidates	First preference
A	550
B	475
C	375
D	350
E	325
F	320
G	300
H	150
I	100
J	55
TOTAL	3,000

2. First Count:

(i) Candidate ‘A’ will be declared elected as he gets more than 500 votes

(ii) Surplus of 50 votes will be distributed to other candidates. For this purpose the value of surplus votes will be worked out and distributed will be worked out and distributed to candidates who have been marked second preferences.

(iii) If only 500 out of 550 voters have exercised their second preferences, the value of each surplus vote will work out to 50 divided by 500 i.e. 10%. On distribution of second preference votes, the position of the other candidates will be as under, if these preferences are received by B, C D and E only.

Candidates	Original	Distribution of Votes	Total surplus
B	475	(250) 25	500
C	375	(100) 10	385
D	350	(100) 10	360
E	325	( 50) 5	330

On the above basis, candidate ‘B’ will be declared as elected as he gets 500 votes on distribution of surplus of ‘A’.

3. Elimination candidates:

(i) Since there are no surpluses with other candidates, the candidate who has got the lowest number of votes will be eliminated.

(ii)In the given case ‘J’ will be the first to be eliminated. 55 votes in his packet will be distributed to candidates who have been marked second or subsequent preferences at full value. If only 50 voters have marked second or subsequent preferences the distribution will be as under:

Candidates	Original+iii above	Votes from ‘J’	Total
C	385	–	385
D	360	–	360
E	330	–	330
F	320	5	325
G	300	45	345
H	150	–	150
I	100	–	100

(iii) The next candidate to be eliminated will be ‘I’ with 100 votes. I all the voters have exercised subsequent preferences; the position will be as under:

Candidates	Votes b/f	Distribution of “I”	Total
C	385	–	385
D	360	40	400
E	330	10	340
F	325	10	335
G	150	40	385
H	–	–	150

(iv) The next candidate to be eliminated will be “H”. If all the 150 candidates have expressed their subsequent preferences, the position will be as under:

Candidates	Votes b/f	Distribution of “H”	Total
C	385	20	405
D	400	100	500
E	340	–	340
F	335	–	335
G	385	30	415

On this basis “D” will be declared elected and “F” who has got the least votes of 335 gets eliminated. Out of this 33 if only 275 voters have expressed their subsequent preferences the distribution will be as follows:

Candidates	votes b/f	distribution of “H”	Total
C	405	50	455
E	340	130	470
G	415	95	510

Here “G” gets elected.

(v) The remaining candidates will be “C” and “E”. Since the number of votes obtained by “E” is 470 as against 455 by “C”, “E” will be declared elected even though he had secured less than 500 votes.

(vi) A, B, D, G and E will be the candidates who are successful in this election.

A candidate who gets maximum 1st preference votes and also, crosses “quota” is considered to be elected & the process will be followed as narrated above with an illustration.

Note:

A qualified Chartered Accountant who is member of ICAI as on 31-03-2021 is entitled to vote at polling booth assigned to him in accordance with his registered office address submitted by him to the Institute.

A member will get two Ballot, one for Central Council & one for Regional Council & members has to give their preference (1, 2, 3….& so on) on both the ballot paper.

It is therefore important for the members to cast more than 1st preference to get at least one candidate elected of his choice.

(Republished with Amendments)