SIMULATENOUS ELECTIONS - POLITY
News:
Law panel to examine simultaneous elections
What's in the news?
● The
issue of holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the State
Assemblies has been referred to the Law Commission for further examination.
Key takeaways:
● The
Union Law Minister argued in favour of holding simultaneous elections to Lok
Sabha and State Assemblies as it would result in savings to the public
exchequer but it would also entail “imperatives” such as amending the
Constitution and bringing all political parties on board.
● Constitutional
Amendments:
○ The
Minister pointed out that simultaneous elections would require amendments in
“not less than five” articles of the Constitution such as
■ Article 83
relating to the duration of Houses of Parliament.
■ Article 85
relating to dissolution of Lok Sabha by the President.
■ Article 172
relating to duration of the State legislatures.
■ Article 174
relating to dissolution of the State legislatures.
■ Article 356
relating to the imposition of President’s Rule in the States.
● 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.
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.
● Destabilizes 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 polarizing events that have accentuated casteism, communalism,
and corruption.
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: