Legislators elect the next president with an Indian woman as favorite

New Delhi, July 19, 2007. - Almost 5,000 Indian legislators decide today who will be the thirteenth president, in elections characterized by the breakdown of traditional consensus between the major parties and in which a woman as a favorite part.
With tight security, the round of voting began at 10.00 pm (30.04 GMT) at the headquarters of the regional assemblies and the central Parliament, to elect a new president, a position more ceremonial but symbolically important .
Among the first to go to the polls was the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, who arrived grimly and calm to the parliament building in Delhi, where he made ​​a gesture with the fingers of victory to reporters, but without making statements, reported India news agency PTI.
The month of the campaign that preceded the appointment has been characterized by low blows between supporters of the government side and the main opposition group, who have devoted themselves to air the dirty laundry of the opponent ahead of a vote that has only its two candidates.
Although results will not be known until Saturday, most of the Indian media are committed to a victory for the government candidate, Pratibha Patil, 72 years and current governor of Rajasthan (West), who could become the first woman president of the History of India.
The Congress Party led by Sonia Gandhi, proposed to his parliamentary allies Patil's candidature at the last minute, after shuffling the names of the current Interior Minister Shivraj Patil and Foreign Pranab Mukherjee, unable to reach agreement.
The alternative candidate-championed by the main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - is the current Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, whose prospects depend on achieving the "crossover votes" of non-aligned members and dissidents government side.
The electoral system governing the presidential election mechanism responds to the single transferable vote, in which each voter has the option of voting by more than one candidate, but establishing a preference ordering, which together serve to determine who has more support.
The vote, secret, each voter -776 4,120 national and regional representatives, has a weighted based on the representativeness of the seats that each holds, with a total of 1,098,000 points.
According to an estimate released today by the television channel NDTV, Patil could collect 622,345 points, well above the absolute majority, while his rival would have insured 318,777 Shekhawat.
A priori Shekhawat hurts him the call to the abstention of the second largest opposition coalition, the Third Front, although several members of the group did not follow the recommendation and went to vote and at the opening of the polls.
The option preferred by the Third Front was the reappointment of the current president, the popular Muslim scientist Abdul Kalam, but he refused to attend after finding that neither the Congress nor the BJP gave him their support.
Instead, Congress chose the option of Patil, a lawyer from the Maharashtra region which merit, to his adversaries, is its fidelity to the saga of the Gandhis.
Upon designation as a candidate, Patil started receiving a trickle of allegations in court regarding the alleged support that he gave his brother in a murder case of financial irregularities and several of its projects.
A Patil has not helped the fact that he said during a speech that the veil came to India to protect women from the "invaders" Muslims, leading to different groups of this religion to demand its withdrawal.
Meanwhile, Shekhawat was criticized by supporters of the Congress Party as vice president for not stop after applying, in addition to suffering the return of an old ghost, a six-month suspension from his position as police for taking bribes in 1947.
The Indian President has been busy in recent mandates by members of "sensitive" sectors of India: the Muslim Kalam preceded the Dalit ("untouchable") and now Kocharan Naranayan Patil's victory would make her the first woman to head the Indian state.

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