ONE
NATION, ONE ELECTION - POLITY
News: AIADMK comes out in support of BJP’s
‘One Nation One Election’
What's
in the news?
●
Edappadi K Palaniswami, the Interim
General Secretary of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), on
Saturday, January 14 has sent a reply to the Law Commission of India in support
of the 'One Nation One Election' move.
Key
takeaways:
●
At
present, each state in India holds its own separate assembly elections.
●
The only election that takes place
simultaneously across the Nation is the parliamentary polls.
●
The
One Nation One Election statute was initiated by the Union Government and
advocates for a single election for both the Legislative Assembly and the
Parliament.
●
With the establishment of One Nation One
Election, voters will be required to cast two votes at once - one for the state
assembly and the other for the parliament.
What
are Simultaneous Elections?
●
Simultaneous elections refer
to holding elections to Lok Sabha, State Legislative Assemblies,
Panchayats and Urban local bodies simultaneously, once in five year.
Need
for Simultaneous Elections:
Need for simultaneous
elections arises because of the problems associated with frequent elections:
●
The massive expenditure that is currently incurred for the conduct
of separate elections.
●
The policy
paralysis that results from the imposition of the Model Code of
Conduct during election time.
●
Impact
on delivery of essential services.
●
Burden
on crucial manpower that is deployed during election
time.
●
Destabilises
the duly elected governments and imposed a heavy
burden on the exchequer.
●
Puts pressure
on political parties, especially smaller ones, as elections are becoming
increasingly expensive.
●
Increases
the cost of management to the election commission.
Merits
of Simultaneous Elections:
1.
Governance and consistency:
●
The ruling parties will be able to focus
on legislation and governance rather than having to be in campaign mode
forever.
2.
Reduced Expenditure of Money and Administration:
●
The entire State and District level administrative
and security machinery will be busy with the conduct of elections twice in a
period of five years as per the current practice.
●
Expenditure can be reduced by conducting
simultaneous elections.
3.
Continuity in policies and programmes.
4.
Efficiency of Governance:
●
Simultaneous elections can bring
the much-needed operational efficiency in this exercise.
●
Populist measures by governments will
reduce.
5.
Curbs Corruption:
●
Simultaneous elections can also be
a means to curb corruption and build a more conducive socio-economic
ecosystem.
●
The impact of black money on the
voters will be reduced as all elections are held at a time.
6.
Impact on social fabric:
●
Frequent elections perpetuate caste,
religion, and communal issues across the country as elections are polarising
events that have accentuated casteism, communalism, and corruption.
Legal
complications in bringing out One Nation, One Elections:
For simultaneous
elections to be implemented, Changes to be made in Constitution and
Legislations such as
Constitutional
Amendments:
●
Article
83
- which deals with the duration of Houses of Parliament need an amendment
●
Article
85 - on dissolution of Lok Sabha by the president.
●
Article
172 - relating to the duration of state legislatures.
●
Article
174 - relating to dissolution of state assemblies.
●
Article
356 - on President’s Rule.
Legal
amendments:
The Representation of People Act, 1951 Act would have to be
amended to build in provisions for stability of tenure for both parliament and
assemblies. This should include the following crucial elements:
●
Restructuring the powers and functions of
the ECI to facilitate procedures required for simultaneous elections.
●
A definition of simultaneous election can
be added to section 2 of the 1951 act.
Complications:
Several practical
difficulties are as follows.
1.
Confused Voters:
●
Not all voters are highly educated to know
who to vote for - assembly or parliament elections.
2.
Create gap between voters and their representatives:
●
Frequent elections bring the politicians
back to the voters, create jobs {though temporary} and prevent the mixing of
local and national issues in the minds of the voters.
3.
Logistics issues:
●
The issue of logistics and requirement of
security personnel, election and administrative officials needs to be
considered.
●
There is a dearth of enough security and
administrative officials to conduct simultaneous free and fair elections
throughout the country in one go.
4.
Against multi-party democracy:
●
India is a multi-party democracy where
elections are held for State Assemblies and the 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.
5.
Anti-federal:
●
Assembly elections are fought on local
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
story.
●
This could mean a regress for the federal
character of the polity, which is best avoided.
6.
Consensus among political parties:
●
The biggest challenge to simultaneous
polls lies in getting the party political consensus needed to bring an
amendment in the law.
●
Achieving an all party consensus is not
easy.
Recommendations
of the standing committee:
The Standing Committee on
Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, in its report on ‘Feasibility of
Holding Simultaneous Elections to the House of People (Lok Sabha) and State Legislative
Assemblies’ are as follows.
1.
Conditions for holding early elections:
●
Committee recommended that elections could
be held in two phases. It stated that elections to some Legislative Assemblies
could be held during the midterm of Lok Sabha.
●
Elections to the remaining legislative
assemblies could be held with the end of Lok Sabha's.
2.
No-confidence motion:
●
The Commission noted that a no-confidence
motion, if passed, may curtail the term of Lok Sabha/ state assembly.
●
It recommended replacing the
‘no-confidence motion’ with a ‘constructive vote of no-confidence’, through
appropriate amendments.
3.
Hung House/ Assembly:
●
If no party secures a majority to form the
government, it may result in a hung House/ Assembly.
●
In order to prevent this, the Commission
recommended that the President/ Governor should give an opportunity to the
largest party along with their pre or post-poll alliance to form the
government.
●
If the government can still not be formed,
an all-party meeting may be called to resolve the stalemate.
●
If this fails, mid-term elections may be
held. The Commission recommended that appropriate amendments be made to provide
that any new Lok Sabha/Assembly formed after mid-term elections, will be
constituted only for the remainder of the previous term, and not the entire
five years.
4.
Amendment to anti-defection laws:
●
The Commission recommended that
appropriate amendments be made to anti-defection laws to ensure that all
disqualification issues (arising from defection) are decided by the presiding
officer within six months.
Countries
with simultaneous elections are held: