13. Parity of Presidential electors. -It now falls to be considered how parity of voters between the two Wings can be maintained in the case of election to the office of President in the direct method. The terms of reference require that this parity shall have to be maintained. A fairly large number of persons who sent replies and gave evidence- particularly from the West Wing- have rather strongly opposed the idea of parity mainly on the following grounds:
(i) That the idea of parity of voters is based on distrust against the Wing that has majority of population and is, therefore, bad in principle if such distrust is allowed to take roots, there shall grow a vicious circle which, in its wake, will create further distrust and suspicion of the people of one Wing against that of the other with the result that national solidarity is likely to be undermined.
(ii)That the idea of parity of voters is also based on the wrong assumption that the voters from one Wing will vote for a Presidential candidate coming from hat Wing. A Presidential candidate is expected to be a person of very high caliber, towering personality and integrity. Voters will usually vote for a candidate who possesses these high qualities, wherever he comes from.
(iii) If (here are three candidates for the office of President two of them unless all the three belong to the same Wing, will be from one Wing and the third from the other. This will mean a triangular fight, for the office of President which will really render the provision of parity nugatory.
(iv)With the emergence of political parties commanding following in both the Wings, the voters, irrespective of their residence in one Wing or the other, will normally vote for the candidates sponsored by the parties according to their respective party affiliations. In such a case, the idea of parity is meaningless,
There is, no doubt, a good deal of substance in some of these contentions, but it is not open to the Commission to examine the question of parity on merits. The Commission, according to the terms of reference, must accept two things as settled fact. These are: (1) the presidential form of government as envisaged in the Constitution and (2) equal number of Presidential electors in each Province, whatever be the method of election of the President- direct or indirect,
Coming back to the question as to how parity of Presidential electors can be maintained in the system of direct election of the President, it seems to us that it is possible to devise a method by which the principle underlying parity can be maintained even in this system. Excluding the seats for women there are at present 150 general seats in the National Assembly. Of them 75 seats are allotted to the East Wing and 75 to the West Wing. Consequently there are 75 single-member constituencies in each Wing, let us take that each such Constituency has one electoral vote. Thus the number of electoral votes in each Wing shall be equal. Election in each of this 150 constituencies shall be direct and on the basis of adult suffrage. Of the Presidential candidates whoever wins election in one of these constituencies shall get one electoral vote. In this way whoever secures the largest number of electoral votes out of the total of 150 shall be deemed to be
