NEW DELHI – Elections in the world’s most populous democracy are a big affair, with Indian voters queuing up at polling booths frequently to choose their leaders. They do so not just for the once-in-five-years general election, the last of which in 2019 saw nearly 615 million voters cast their votes at more than 10 million polling booths.
On Sept 2, the government constituted an eight-member committee headed by former Indian president Ram Nath Kovind to explore the possibility of holding simultaneous elections in the country. If such a model is adopted in India, it would become one of the few countries, including Belgium, Sweden and South Africa, that hold national and provincial elections simultaneously.
Legal complexities have also been flagged, such as those that may arise in case elected governments lose power before the end of their five-year term.
Even held separately, the general election is a complex affair. In 2019, it was held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19, allowing for movement of security personnel and other officials. Simultaneous elections have also been described as a potential attack on federalism that could diminish the power of regional parties, as well as lead to situations where national and international issues end up eclipsing local ones during campaigning.
A study by the Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies found political parties had spent as much as 200 billion rupees on the 2019 general election. But Dr Quraishi said even this spending by political parties may not necessarily be viewed as something that has to be curtailed given it pours money into the economy and benefits commoners, for instance those hired to paint political graffiti.The government has not given out an estimate of savings that may accrue from holding elections simultaneously.
It was in 1983 that the idea of simultaneous polls was pitched again by the Election Commission of India, with leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party making repeated attempts to revive the proposal. It is an issue various government committees have also analysed, including the Law Commission that looked at constitutional changes necessary to synchronise elections in a draft report in 2018.
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