Holding elections simultaneously state assemblies and Parliament

What has PM suggested?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reported advocacy in a recent party meeting

Q A
What has PM suggested?
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reported advocacy in a recent party meeting of the idea of simultaneous elections to panchayats, urban local bodies, state assemblies and Parliament.
Is it the 1st time this Idea has been mooted?
  • This idea has been suggested by BJP’s 2014 manifesto;
  • in the first annual report of the Election Commission submitted in 1983;
  • a standing committee report submitted in Parliament last December said that “a solution will be found to reduce the frequency of elections which relieve people and governmental machinery, tired of frequent electoral processes”.
Why it should be done?
  • Elections are becoming increasingly expensive exercises in which EC ceilings are routinely given short shrift,
  • that a ceaseless election cycle has meant that delivery mechanisms come to a standstill,
  • that parties and workers are spending too much time, money and energy in electioneering.
What are the problems with this suggestion?
  • Varying electoral schedules have contributed to a deepening of the polity’s federal character — with every state evolving its own format of competition, cast of characters and regional parties and issues.
  • Election expenses have vaulted steeply and it is also true that the model code of conduct is often imposed in overly restrictive ways. But the answer to that is to better regulate election finance and to bring in other electoral — and political — reform.
  • In fact, even administratively, holding simultaneous elections only once in five years would be a nightmare, and would raise constitutional questions such as: If an elected government collapses two years into its tenure, what would be the composition of the ruling arrangement for the remaining three?
  • Elections are at the heart of representative democracy, and fixed terms curtail and constrict that idea intolerably. Nobody said that democracy comes cheap. And in a diverse democracy, election rules that allow many different groups to express their interests are more desirable than those that encourage polarisation around a single dominant cleavage.

WORD FROM TEAM GS-SCORE –

Relevant for

Polity of GS:2
For further detail Refer article titled “Better apart” from The Hindu dated march 31, 2016

Write Your Review