Context: The high-level committee headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind has recommended simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies as the first step, and holding municipal and panchayat polls within 100 days of the general election in the next phase.
MERITS OF HOLDING SIMULTANEOUS ELECTIONS
- More focus on long term development & growth - Cycle of continuous elections affects developmental process and good governance and also forces political class to typically think in terms of immediate electoral gains rather than focus on long-term programs and policies for the overall progress of the nation and its people. A period of election free years will allow political class and government members in states and centre to focus more on long term development process.
- Lesser period for imposition of MCC: Imposition of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) puts on hold the entire development program and activities of the Union and State Governments in the poll bound State. It even affects the normal governance. Frequent elections lead to imposition of MCC over prolonged periods of time. This often leads to policy paralysis and governance deficit”. Thus, periodic elections will help government to focus more on developmental works.
- Reduce massive expenditure on elections - Elections lead to huge expenditures by various stakeholders. Every year, Union and State Government bear expenditures on account of conduct, control and supervision of elections. Besides the Government, candidates contesting elections and political parties also incur huge expenditures. The candidates normally incur expenditures on account of various necessary aspects such as travel to constituencies, general publicity, organizing outreach events for electorates etc. while the political parties incur expenditures to run the party’s electoral machinery during elections, campaigning by star leaders and so on. Thus, holding simultaneous elections will help in reducing cost significantly.
- Will decrease Corruption & Black Money Expenditure during elections - Candidates and political parties in their bid to win elections end up spending significantly more than the prescribed expenditure limits. The urge to spend more than prescribed limits to win elections, is consequently blamed as one of the key drivers for corruption and black-money in the country. Dr. S. Y. Quraishi, former Chief Election Commissioner, remarked, “elections have become the root cause of corruption in the country. After winning elections, the politician-bureaucrat nexus indulges in recovering the investment” and that is where corruption begins”. Thus, holding simultaneous elections will provide less opportunity to politicians to use unaccounted money for bribe and corruption.
- Manpower can be better utilised - The Election Commission of India takes help of a significant number of polling officials as well as armed forces to ensure smooth, peaceful and impartial polls. While conducting elections to the 16th Lok Sabha, the ECI took the help of approximately 10 million personnel as polling officials for running and supervising the election process across 9,30,000 Polling Stations of the country. For providing the required security arrangements, the Election Commission generally involves Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF). As the demand for CAPF is typically higher than the supply, police forces such as State Armed Police, Home Guards, District Police etc. are often deployed as well to complement security arrangements. The role of such security forces starts much before polling and ends only after the counting of votes and declaration of results effectively covering the entire duration of the elections. These security officials are also deployed during state elections. Thus, holding simultaneous elections will allow better utilisation of central and state security forces.
- Disruptions to public life and essential services will be limited for a fixed period - Frequent elections disrupt normal public life. frequent elections lead to disruption of normal public life and impact the functioning of essential services. Holding of political rallies disrupts road traffic and leads to noise pollution. If simultaneous elections are held, this period of disruption would be limited to a certain pre-determined period of time”.
- Lesser disruptions because of polarisations taking place during elections - Elections are polarising events which have accentuated casteism, communalism, corruption and crony capitalism. If the country is perpetually on election mode, there is no respite from these evils. Holding simultaneous elections would certainly help in this context”. Thus, holding elections every five years will lead to greater period of peace without unnecessary polarisation.
DEMERITS OF HOLDING SIMULTANEOUS ELECTIONS
- National Issues overriding Regional Issues - Assembly elections are fought on local state issues and, in the true spirit of federalism, parties and leaders are judged in the context of their work done in the state. Clubbing them with the general election could lead to a situation where the national narrative submerges the regional problems and issues.
- Difficult for Voters to decide on national & regional lines - India has a federal structure and a multi-party democracy where elections are held for State Assemblies and Lok Sabha separately. The voters are better placed to express their voting choices keeping in mind the two different governments which they would be electing by exercising their franchise. This distinction gets blurred somewhat when voters are made to vote for electing two types of government at the same time, at the same polling booth, and on the same day.
- No Guarantee of Tenure of 5 Years for Lok Sabha & State Assemblies - There may be a scenario where due to constitutional failure in a state, the state assembly has to be dissolved. Or, Lok Sabha can be dissolved prematurely if No Confidence Motion is passed. So, such scenarios must be provided for in the constitution. This will need constitutional amendment.
- Need to align state assemblies with Lok Sabha - Holding Simultaneous Elections along with Lok Sabha would need either extending tenure of some State Assembly for more than 5 years or reducing tenure of other state assemblies. This will require another constitutional amendment.
- Difficult to Deploy entire Security Forces at the same time throughout India
- Lack of Political Consensus on holding simultaneous elections among different political parties.
Kovind Panel Recommendation ·
- Elections to Lok Sabha and state Assemblies should be held at the same time and, subsequently, elections to local bodies (municipalities and panchayats) too should be “synchronised” so that they are held within 100 days of the simultaneous state and national elections.·
- Committee has suggested an overall 15 amendment to the constitution - in the form of both new provisions and changes to existing provisions — to be carried out through two Constitution Amendment Bills.· The first Bill will deal with the transition to a simultaneous election system, and the procedure for fresh elections to Lok Sabha or a state Assembly before the expiration of their stipulated five-year term.
- The first Bill recommended by the Kovind committee would begin by inserting a new article— 82A —into the Constitution.
- According to the committee report, Article 82A(1) will state that “on the date of the first sitting of the House of the People after a general election”, the President will issue a notification bringing Article 82A into effect. The date of this notification “shall be called the Appointed date”.
- Article 82A(2) will state that “all the Legislative Assemblies constituted in any general election held after the appointed date shall come to an end on the expiry of the full term of the House of the People”.
- The proposed Article 82A(3) requires the ECI to hold “General elections to the House of the People and the Legislative Assemblies simultaneously”. If the ECI believes that elections to any legislative assembly cannot be conducted simultaneously, “it may make a recommendation to the President, to declare by an Order, that the election to that Legislative Assembly may be conducted at a later date”. (Article 82A(4)).
- "The full term of the Legislative Assembly shall end on same date as the end of the full term of the House of the People constituted in the General Election”. (Article 82A(5)) o The power of Parliament under Article 327 should be expanded to include “conduct of simultaneous elections” as well.
- When Lok Sabha or State Assembly is dissolved before ‘full term’ ends – Panel proposed amendments to Article 83 (“Duration of Houses of Parliament”) and Article 172 (“Duration of the State Legislatures”).
- If Lok Sabha or a state Assembly is dissolved before the expiry of the full term, the remaining period will be referred to as the “unexpired term”.
- The recommended Articles state that the Lok Sabha or state Assembly that replaces the previous one will serve only for the remaining “unexpired term” before being dissolved again once simultaneous elections are conducted as scheduled.
- The report has also recommended the amendment of certain laws relating to legislative Assemblies in Union Territories to ensure that Assembly elections in UTs also take place simultaneously with Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections. ·
- The second Bill will deal with municipal and panchayat elections, as well as the creation of a Single Electoral Roll by the Election Commission of India (ECI), with details of every voter and the seat for which they are eligible to vote.
- The committee has suggested the inclusion of a new Article 324A in the Constitution. This new article would empower Parliament to make laws to ensure that municipality and panchayat elections are held simultaneously with the General Elections (to Lok Sabha and state Assemblies).
- The new Article 325(2) proposed by the committee that will create a “Single Electoral Roll for every territorial constituency for election in the House of the People, Legislature of a State or to a Municipality or a Panchayat”.
- This electoral roll “shall be made by the Election Commission in consultation with the State Election Commissions”
WAY FORWARD
- The proposal to introduce simultaneous elections in India both to Lok Sabha and State Assemblies is a bold reform and must be carried forward with the consensus of all state assemblies and political parties.
- Draft proposal must be made by NITI Aayog on important constitutional amendments and other amendments in Representation of People Act and other laws which would be needed to hold simultaneous elections in India.
- Election Commission must come up with its administrative framework regarding the steps necessary to ensure free, fair and transparent elections in India.