Legislators in India begin voting for new president
印度开始投票选举新一任总统
当地时间7月18日上午10时，印度启动新一任总统选举。 近4800名印度议会议员和印度各邦的立法会议员参与了印度第15任总统的投票。
印度执政联盟推选的候选人莫尔穆比反对党全国民主联盟推出的候选人辛哈具有更明显的优势， 预计将有超过60%的选票投给她。若莫尔穆顺利当选，印度将迎来第二位女总统，也是第一位出身部落地区的总统。
India’s parliament began voting Monday for a new president, with a female politician from the country’s marginalized tribal community the favorite for the post.
Droupadi Murmu, from the Santhal tribe, has been nominated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party for the largely ceremonial position.
If elected, she would be India’s first tribal president and second female president. The incumbent, Ram Nath Kovind, is the country’s second president from the Dalit community, the bottom of the Hindu caste system.
Her main opponent for the presidency is veteran politician Yashwant Sinha, an ex-BJP member and former finance and external affairs minister, who has been backed by opposition parties including Congress.
India’s president is chosen by nearly 5,000 elected members of both houses of parliament and regional legislatures across the country.
Each of their votes is weighted according to the size of their constituency, and they rank the candidates in order of preference.
If no one has more than 50 percent support, the lowest-scoring candidate is eliminated and their votes redistributed until someone reaches the mark.
The result will be announced later this week.
India’s prime minister wields executive power, but the president can send back a few parliamentary bills for reconsideration.
The president also plays a guiding role in the process of forming governments.
