One Nation One Election

 As per Press Release of the Ministry of Law and Justice, the high-level committee on ‘One Nation One Election’ constituted under the chairmanship of former President of India Shri Ramnath Kovind in their report submitted to Hon’ble President of India Shrimati Draupadi Murmu has recommended a two-step approach to lead to the simultaneous elections.

As the first step, simultaneous elections will be held for the House of the People and the State Legislative Assemblies.  In the second step, elections to the Municipalities and the Panchayats to be synchronized with the House of the People and the State Legislative Assemblies in such a way that Municipalities and Panchayats elections are held within hundred days of holding elections to the House of the People and the State Legislative Assemblies.

I fully endorse the idea of One Nation One Election and I believe these recommendations chart a good roadmap to finally move towards simultaneous elections.

Following are some of the thoughts on why we need synchronised elections. 

A must to be a developed nation

The concurrent elections or two-phased elections are not just desirable, but imperative for the country’s advancement to much mature democracy and necessity if we aspire for our country to be in the league of developed nations.   Of course we do, and must, aspire to be a developed nation.

No democratic country in the list of developed nations is as populous and as big in size in terms of the number of provinces as India.  Except United States of America and to an extent South Africa.  Other democracies in the list are small and hence having separate federal and provincial elections don’t matter much in terms of cost and days lost due to electioneering. And elections in these countries do not require deployment of security apparatus and are not as intense and tense as they are in India. Of the two big countries, USA has system of two- phased elections and South Africa has concurrent one.

 Saving on cost

The Centre for Media Studies has pegged around Rs 55000 crore or $8 billion spent during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.  This includes the amount spent by candidates, political parties and election commission.  It is estimated that out of total cost of holding parliamentary and assembly elections, about 20% is spent by election commission. According to this estimate EC spent around Rs 10000-12000 crore for the 2019 parliamentary election.  In addition, between 2019 and 2024 parliamentary elections, EC would have spent on every state election in between separately.  It is obvious, therefore, that holding Lok Sabha and state elections would significantly reduce massive expenditure, the saving of which can be utilised for projects that create jobs and fuel economic growth.  The saving can also come handy for funding welfare schemes.

Better for administrative efficiency and security

There are at least 4-5 elections that happen every year.  This causes administrative machinery to slow down considerably as officials are put on poll duty. In addition, the paramilitary forces that are withdrawn from their posting and deployed in concerned states for securing peaceful conduct of elections.  Simultaneous polls require deployment only once or maximum twice during the year depending on how the methodology of combined elections has been put in practice.  And hence administration and security operations are not frequently interrupted for poll duty requirement.

Avoiding governance paralysis

Every 5 years, there are 30 elections to state legislatures (28 states plus Puducherry and Delhi) and one general election.  Every year average 4 states go to polls. The code of conduct is in place from declaration to announcement of result for average 50 days every year and 70 days for general election.   While code of conduct is in place and parties are busy in campaigning, there is hardly any focus on governance.  So, in effect, out of 1825 days in 5 years, 320 days (50 days per year x 5 years +70 days general election) are lost due to code of conduct and electioneering.  That is almost a year of governance paralysis every five years!!! During this period, all major infrastructure and investment projects in pipeline have to be put on hold, most of government staff remain perennially on election duty and the private sector also holds back on investment due to uncertainty on policies. As a result, the economic activities and development work suffer and with that job and livelihood get adversely affected.

How can we as a nation aspiring to be the world leader can continue with such wasteful exercise of multiple elections one after the other when there are ways to redeem the situation.  

Larger voter turnout

One of the most important factors for any democracy is participation of voters.  Larger voter participation lends vibrancy and broader representation to democracy.   Frequent elections can cause voter fatigue resulting in lower voter turnout.   In the 2019 general election, the voter turnout was 67.40 percent.  Which means that out of 91.20 crore registered voter, 61.10 crore turned out to vote. This figure could go up significantly in case of both parliamentary and assembly elections are held simultaneously.  This will potentially make exercise more inclusive. 

Positive impact on education and health

Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) states that nearly 43% of children in the 14-18 age group in rural areas cannot read sentences in English, while 25% struggle to read a Class 2 level text in their respective regional language.

One of the major factors could well be that teaching staff of primary, secondary institutes and universities imparting higher education as well as technical education are put on election duty and as a result student are left unattended for months, affecting their learning, growth and progress. 

A 2016 report titled ‘Involvement of Teachers in Non-teaching Activities and its Effect on Education’ showed that teachers spent 81% of their time in non-teaching activities, most of which went into election duty.

Public health workers are also assigned pre-election tasks like verification of voter cards and other tasks. They include nurses, clerks, paramedics and technicians who perform important day-to-day work.  Their frequent deployment to election related duties could adversely affect public health initiatives and activities. 

Education and health play very important role in a nation’s wellbeing. We must do everything possible to make them efficient.  

Concerns

One major concern of regional parties over simultaneous elections is that it would overshadow regional and state issues and the national parties will have advantage over regional parties which is detrimental to the federal structure of the country.  The regional parties would not be able to compete with national parties in terms of election expenditure and election strategy.

Legislative assembly elections in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim were held simultaneously with the general election of 2019, as well as by-elections of twenty-two seats of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.  Yet regional parties in three out of four states won the election.  The ruling party at the Center won only in one which is 25%.  So, the fear that the concurrent elections are disadvantageous to regional parties and that local issues would be overshadowed is misplaced.

There are various other concerns like pre-mature dissolutions due to various reasons, feasibility and practicality of holding parliamentary, assemblies and local elections together from point of view of adequacy of resources and security and other statutory requirements like holding election within six months of dissolution of a government.

The Law Commission Working Paper have made several recommendations to address these issues through amendments of Representation of the People’s Act, the no-confidence motion may be replaced with constructive vote as in Germany through suitable amendments in rules of business and the statutory limits may be extended as a one-time measure. 

Anti-defection law could be amended to allow defection only after full-term is served by a member elected on a particular party ticket.  This will also reduce scope for horse-trading.

Conclusion

The idea of One Nation One Poll in India offers cost saving and reduces disruptions caused by frequent elections.  There are logistical and constitutional challenges but a well-thought-out plan with involvement of all stakeholders, the idea is implementable and desirable from the perspectives of cost, governance, administrative efficiency and social cohesion.  In conclusion, quoting a view of Bharat Ratna and former President of India Late Shri Pranab Mukherjee on simultaneous elections would be most appropriate. 

“With some election or the other throughout the year, normal activities of the government come to standstill because of code of conduct.  This is an idea the political leadership should think of.  If political parties collectively think, we can change it.  The Election Commission can also put in their idea and efforts on holding the polls together and that will be highly beneficial.”

I endorse the idea fully.