Apogee

Polysis
March 27, 2019

Election Crossroads : One Nation One Poll

INTRODUCTION:
The kind of electoral exercise that we witness in India is unparalleled in the world. Due to the sheer size of electorate
and the expanse of our democracy, this electoral exercise doesn’t only assume gigantic proportions, it also leads to
huge electoral expenditure. To add to the existing woes, our general and state elections are not held simultaneously
and thereby one part or the other of our country is always electorally alert. The Election Commission of India is on its
foot throughout the year because of this. This is the situation when we are not taking account of local elections for
panchayat and urban municipalities. The ever-rising electoral expenditure on the country because of this can prove
detrimental to our governance and developmental goals.
The nature of our elections to be free and fair is threatened by the rising cost of elections as political parties and
candidates who contest look out for other sources to cover these costs. It is an open secret that this contributes to

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 political corruption as pointed out by many studies. The frequent elections are also an ever increasing
administrative burden for the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Countries conducting simultaneous elections :

● England has chosen to hold general elections and local government elections on the same day since 1997. But, in
practice, local elections are delayed if polls to European Parliament have to be held.
● Italy, Belgium, and Sweden are some countries that conduct general and local elections together.
● In South Africa, national and provincial elections are held simultaneously. Municipal elections are not linked with
these.

Pros:

● Reducing government expenditure: If elections are held simultaneously there will be significant savings of public
money that can be utilised for development works.
● Reducing party election expenses: If elections are held at once, then expenses of political parties will also be under
control. This will reduce the role of black money in election funding since political parties will not be tempted to seek
illegal sources of funding for elections.
● More time for development work: Right now ministers and their parties are in constant election mode since election
to some or the other state legislature is just a few months away. This results in less time to devote to their official
duties.
● Better utilisation of security forces: For holding elections hundreds of central police forces in addition to state
police have to be deployed. Not only this costs huge amount of money but the security forces also are diverted from
their core mandate of ensuring internal security in the country.
● Better voter turnout: In many places , people concerned either with local or national elections may show
enthusiasm towards the other election also and will lead to better voter turnout.

CONS:

● Instability : The delinking of elections also leads to a situation where we witness instability at the national level.
When elections happen, it involves the whole machinery of government. The party in power cannot afford to look
away and even the ministers of highest ranks get involved in the campaign process.

● Lack of bold decision-making : If a party which is in power at centre loses election in a state, it is projected by the
opposition as the results have made severe dent on its mandate to rule. This also leads to loss of confidence in the
ruling regime. A negative atmosphere is created which contributes in affecting the governance of the country in an

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 adverse way. A loss in a state election in the middle of the tenure of a government at national level is rapidly projected
as a loss of credibility and hence all efforts are made by the strengthened opposition to stall any new reform
measures.
● Security issues : Fearing outbreaks of attacks by Maoist rebels, terrorist violence and communal clashes between
communities, the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2014 mobilised some 200,000 security personnel – comprising 175,000
paramilitary forces and 25,000 state police officers - across the country to protect polling stations and safeguard
election results. In the last general election in 2009, the central government-provided security deployment consisted
of 120,000 personnel. These figures do not include the hundreds of thousands of other provincial police and local
security forces that were deployed to polling stations across the country. This added feature makes our elections
more expensive and the fierce competition in elections may also lead to loss of lives at many places. With the
elections happening so often, these features have become a recurrent theme of our democratic process.

● In Canada, the Canadian Prime Minister and provincial Premiers have a right to call elections at any time during their
tenure of five years. This right could be used by them to prolong their stay in power by going to polls when their
popularity is rated high. This led to the rise of “fixed election date” movement a decade ago. It succeeded in
introducing set election dates in eight out of 10 provinces. At the centre, the Fixed Election Date Act was adopted in
2007.