SIMULTANEOUS ELECTIONS

SIMULTANEOUS ELECTIONS

WHY IN NEWS?

• Recently, a high­ level committee (HLC) headed by former President of India, Ramnath Kovind, was constituted in to examine the issue of holding simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha, State Legislative Assemblies and local bodies of all States.

HISTORY OF SIMULTANEOUS ELECTIONS:

• In India, simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies were held in the years 1951-52, 1957, 1962 and 1967.

• Thereafter, however, the schedule could not be maintained and the elections to the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabhas have still not been realigned.

IMPORTANCE OF HOLDING SIMULTANEOUS ELECTIONS:

• As presently, the cost of holding elections for Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies of States and UTs has been pegged at Rs. 4500 crore by the ECI.
• Thus, it was felt that holding simultaneous elections would reduce the massive expenditure incurred for conduct of separate elections every year.
• The entire development programme and activities of the Union and State Governments in the poll bound State would come to a standstill Elections due to imposition of Model Code of Conduct (MCC).
• Frequent elections also lead to imposition of MCC over prolonged periods of time which affects the normal governance of the country.
• Simultaneous elections would also free the crucial manpower which is often deployed for prolonged periods on election duties.
• Due to primary focus being the conduct of elections,the administrative machinery in the districts slow down during the election period.
• Due to polarising campaigns by all the parties in order to win the highstake elections has exacerbated with the advent of social media thereby creating and deepening the fissures in our multi­religious and multilingual country.

CHALLENGES IN CONDUCTING SIMULTANEOUS ELECTIONS:

• HUGE EXPENDITURE: The ECI felt that simultaneous elections would require large scale purchase of Electronic Voting Machines and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines.
• Conducting elections simultaneously to the Lok Sabha and all State assemblies would result in national issues overshadowing regional and State specific issues.
• Simultaneous polls will also require constitutional amendments. It will also require the amendment of Article 356.
• As many of the voters are illiterate, they will need to be educated to caste multiple votes simultaneously so that they do not exercise franchise wrongly.

SUGGESTIONS/OBSERVATION OF PARLIAMENTARY STANDING COMMITTEE (2015):

Certain recommendations were made by the Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice in the matter regarding conduct of simultaneous elections for Lok Sabha and State Legilslative Assemblies :

• As the extension of term of Legislature is not permissible except under proclamation of emergency. But election to Lok Sabha/State Legislative Assemblies can be held six months before under Sections 14 & 15 of the Representation of People Act, 1951.
• The Committee noted that elections were held to the Lok Sabha and four State Legislative Assemblies Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim in March-May 2014.
• The Committee also recommended an alternative and practicable method of holding simultaneous elections which involves holding of elections in two phases.
• The Committee had envisaged holding of elections of some Legislative Assemblies at midterm of Lok Sabha and remaining with the end of tenure of Lok Sabha.
• The Committee further recommended that bye-elections to all seats falling vacant in a particular year be conducted together on a pre-determined date/ time frame.
• The Committee, while taking note of the provisions of the Fixed Term Parliament Act, 2011 of the United Kingdom, recommends that early election to Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies can only be held prior to expiration of their tenure, where either of the two conditions are met:

1. If a motion for an early General Election is agreed either by at least two-thirds of the whole House (including vacant seats).
2. If a motion of no confidence is passed and no alternative government is confirmed by the Lok Sabha/State Legislative Assemblies within fourteen days by means of a confidence motion.

WAY FORWARD:

• Due to lack of consensus among various political parties, the ideal middle ground to conduct simultaneous elections will be to conduct the Lok Sabha election in one cycle and all State assembly elections in another cycle after two and a half years.
• There should be clubbing of bye-­elections to be held once every year.
• With the consensus of all political parties,simultaneous elections may be achieved over the next decade.