One Nation One Election (ONOE)

On 26-Nov-20, Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi addressed 80^th All India Presiding Officers Conference on Constitution Day. He once again reiterated his desire that India should go to ‘One Nation One Election’ (ONOE) way. After experiencing his govt. last 6 years, he has almost done/implemented whatever he said or hinted. Therefore, it is safe to assume that ONOE can be next big ticket reform in Mr. Modi’s list. Therefore, I thought of putting down my own thoughts as a citizen of India.

In fact, Mr. Modi had talked about it in his first term. Many thought that it could be a reality in 2019 general election. But, we know it didn’t happen for many unknown reasons. Has Mr. Modi invented this idea? Is he the only one who is promoting it? Answer to both questions is NO. India has seen and experienced simultaneous General and State Assembly elections before. The first general election and state assembly elections were conducted simultaneously in 1951/52 after independence and acceptance of Constitution of India. The simultaneous elections continued in 1957, 1962 and 1967. It first broke after 1967 election when Mrs. Indira Gandhi (then Prime Minister) was dismissed from the Congress Party due feud within the Congress party. Loksabha was dissolved in Dec 1970. The fresh elections were conducted in March 1971. Mrs. Indira Gandhi imposed emergency in the country in 1975. As a result, 5^th Loksabha continued for almost for 6 years. We saw 5 general elections from 1989 to 1999. Multiple dismissal of state assemblies since 1967 further broke simultaneous elections. Today, India is in continuous election mode.  However, currently there are 4 states (viz. Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh) where state assembly elections are held along with the general election.  

Dr. S. Y. Quarishi (former Chief Election Commissioner) noted that “elections are polarizing events which have accentuated casteism, communalism, corruption and crony capitalism. If the country is perpetually on election mode, there is no respite from these evils. Holding simultaneous elections would certainly help in this context” The Law Commission of India headed by Hon’ble Justice B. P. Jeevan Reddy in its 170^th report on Reform of Electoral Laws (1999) stated “This cycle of elections every year, and in the out of season, should be put an end to. We must go back to the situation where the elections to Loksabha and all the Legislative Assemblies are held at once.”  Hon. Vice President Mr. Venkaiah Naidu has advocated simultaneous elections in past. Mr. Bibek Debroy (Member of Niti Aayog) and Mr. Kishor Desai (Office of Special Duty, Niti Aayog) have published an essay on this topic in Jan-17. I have read all these scholarly articles and many other scholarly articles written by law students across the India on this topic. However, many of the points/suggestions in this blog are my own. But I do not claim that they are not suggested by others. However, I have not read them in public forum.

My view is that the term “One Nation One Election” (ONOE) should be further expanded to “One Nation One Election from Panchayat to Parliament” (ONOEP2P). It means that elections of Panchayat, State Assembly and Loksabha should be conducted simultaneously. This is a huge electoral reform and would need huge modifications to Constitution of India and many prevailing laws of land. But we should dream big. We are the largest democracy in the world and we should lead from the front. India has experience of democracy and conducting free and fair elections over 70 years. It is high time that we should transitioned to Democracy 2.0 now. I am trying to articulate What, When, Why, Where and Why of this topics in the next sections.

The Objective of “One Nation One Election from Panchayat to Parliament”

The following should be the objectives of ONOE I think.  

·         100% Voting: The voting percentage is increasing day by day. But it has reached to ~60% till now. A vibrant democracy should dream of near 100% voting. If all the voters are not voting or not able to vote due to many reasons, then it is violation of fundamental right of the citizens. All the impediments should be removed in achieving this. This is should be the main objective of ONOE.

·         Accurate Voter List: The current voter list is completely flawed. Large number of names are either missing or names are added fraudulently. The voter list should be ~100% accurate so that no citizen is deprived from voting.

·         Free and fair election with ~0 electoral malpractices.

·         Reduction of Election Expenses: The election commission report and law commission reports have indicated that elections are becoming one of the major reason for black money generation and corruption. Loksabha candidate can spend Rs. 70 lacs whereas state assembly candidate can spend Rs. 28 lacs. However, there is no prescribed limit for political parties on election expenses. The report says that the total cost of 2014 general election was Rs. 30,000 crores. It increased to Rs. 55,000 crores in 2019. If we add state assembly election expenses, then it would be multifold. If elections from Panchayat to Parliament are held together, the election expenses can be capped to some amount for Panchayat, state assembly and Loksabha for one registered political party than a candidate.

·         Reduced security risk: Security personnel are deployed on election duty around the year. They will get more time for performing their main duties, if ONOE is implemented.

·         Stability of Governance: Govt. will get complete 5 years to run the govt. effectively and efficiently.

Reasons for Continuous Elections:

India has seen simultaneous elections from 1951/52 to till 1967 (4 times). Over 70 years. India has seen almost all the reasons of disruption of standard term of Loksabha or State Assembly of 5 Years.

·         Hung parliament or state assembly as people did not given clear majority to any political party or political alliance.

·         Imposition of President’s rule under Article 356 and its misuse.

·         Imposition of emergency under Article 352 and its misuse.

·         Central or state government loses the majority or confidence of the house.

·         No confidence motion against central (under Loksabha rule 198) or state govt. is successful.

·         Chief Minister advises Governor to dissolve the house under Article 172 (2) (b).

·         Prime Minister advises President of India to dissolve Loksabha under Article 85 (2) (b).

Misuse of article 356 and 352 can be curtailed by putting additional checks and balances in the law. But all the above scenarios will/can happen in future as well. Dismissing central or state govt. need not be incorrect at all the time. It can be done in the interest of nation as well.

Advantages and Disadvantages of ONOE:

Advantages and disadvantages of ONOE are being discussed, shared by many eminent people and they are also available in public forum. I am just collating them here. I may agree or disagree with few of them.

Advantages:

·         Reduction of Election expenses: Election commission had spent Rs. 3,870 crores in 2014 for general election alone. Total election expenses were Rs. 55,000 crores in 2019 general election as per few reports. If ONOE is implemented, total election expenses will reduce drastically. 

·         Speedy Decision Making: Govt. hesitates to take tough decisions in time as some or other election is at the corner. Some decisions are delayed or hastened to avoid impact on election or to help election. ONOE will remove such inhibition and govt. will take decisions appropriately.

·         Speedy Development Work: Continuous elections and imposition of model code of conduct put spanner into development work. This will be completely stopped after implementation of ONOE.

·         Enhanced Security: Security personnel will be deployed for election duty only once in 5 years. They will get more time to perform their main duties.

·         Reduction in Black Money: Huge black money is generated for elections. Since some election or other is always there in some part of country. Black money generation for election is continuously generated. If election expenses are reduced and election are held simultaneous, black money generation will be reduced. It will reduce the corruption as well.

·         Improved Governance: Each state goes through 3 cycles of election. Government’s administration is completely busy in election duties at least for 3 months for each election. It means, govt. administration is busy in 9 to 10 months in total 60 months i.e. ~17% efforts are spent only on election. If election is held only once in 5 years, they will be busy only for 3 months which is just 5%. It will improve the governance.  

Disadvantages:

·         Noncompetitive Environment: Since election are happening continuously somewhere in the country, political parties have to show performance continuously. If elections are held every 5 years, political parties will not work for first 4 years and work only in last 1 year which will be on top of people’s mind. In short, it will impact on development work.

·         Sidelining of Local Issues: National issues will overpower local issues. Local issues will not impact on the outcome of local elections.

·         Elimination of Regional Parties: National parties will have advantage in ONOE. Regional parties will be slowly marginalized and eventually diminished/marginalized.

One Nation One Election:

Let’s assume govt decides to start ONOE from 2024 (next General Election), then the following things must be done before that,

·         There would be few state assemblies which term need to be extended beyond 5 years.

·         Some of the state assemblies need to be dissolved before completing 5-year term.

·         Article 83(2) gives the term of Loksabha and Article 172 (10) gives the term of state assembly. Today it is not fixed and hence new term of 5 years starts from any election (general or state assembly). Term of Loksabha, State Assembly and Panchayat should be fixed to 5 years. After abolition of Article 370 in State of Jammu and Kashmir where term was 6 years during Article 370 era. Now it should be simpler.

·         Anti-defection law has made it difficult to dislodge majority govt. but opposition parties are still using a tool of No-Confidence motion. Look at the example of no confidence motion moved against Mr. Narendra Modi in Jul 2018. No Confidence motion (against present govt.) should be backed by Confidence motion (for new govt.). Both of them should be approved by house at the same time. This will reduce the misuse of no confidence motion by opposition parties and will help in stabilizing the govt.

·         Panchayat election is a state subject and managed by State Election Commission. Election Commission of India does not have any say in that. Article 324 needs to be change to accommodate this.

·         Reason for continuous has been given above. Constitutional amendment in those article should be taken to minimize those events.

It is important to see state assembly elections schedule in a glance with reference to next 2024 General Election would be conducted somewhere April to June 2024. This view will help in selecting the right window for enacting a new law of ONOE

Year 2021	Year 2022	Year 2023	Year 2024	Year 2025
J&K (Mar)	Uttarakhand (Mar)	Himachal (Jan)	Rajasthan (Jan)	Jharkhand (Jan)
West Bengal (Jun)	Punjab (Mar)	Gujarat (Jan)	MP (Jan)	New Delhi (Jan)
Kerala (Jun)	Goa (Mar)	Nagaland (Mar)	Chhattisgarh (Jan)	Bihar (Nov)
Tamilnadu (Jun)	Manipur (Mar)	Tripura (Mar)	AP (Jun)
Pondicherry (Jun)	Uttar Pradesh (May)	Meghalaya (Mar)	Orissa (Jun)
Assam (Jun)		Karnataka (May)	Arunachal (Jun)
		Mizoram (Dec)	Sikkim (Jun)
		Telangana (Dec)	Haryana (Nov)
			Maharashtra (Nov)

Note: Red marked states where assembly election will be conducted along with General Election. Months given in the above table are approximate. It can vary by few days in either direction.

Scenarios 1:

If new law of ONOE is passed before March-22, then 16 state assemblies can be given extension ranging from 3 months to 25 months, whereas 11 state and UT assemblies will have to be dissolved before 5 months to 1 year before completing complete 5 years.  

Scenarios 2:

If new law is passed in Jun to Dec-22, then 11 state assemblies can be given extension ranging from 3 months to 15 months whereas 16 state and UT assemblies will have to be dissolved before 5 months to 34 months before completing complete 5 years.

States, where assembly duration is being extended, may not have any objections. But States, where assembly is being dissolve before 5 years, will have objection / reservation. The Constitutional experts would say that extension beyond 6 months is not healthy for parliamentary democracy. Same may hold true for dissolution of state assembly. However, there will have to be one-time special consideration in order to start ONOE.

My Solution: National Government:

Dismissal of any state or central govt., President’s rule, hung parliament or state assembly and imposition of emergency are very much possibilities in future and can’t be avoided. Such events will disrupt ONOE in future. Therefore, some new constitutional arrangement should be made to address these cases. If ONOE has to start in 2024, one-time extension or dissolution of state assembly will be necessary. To address these scenarios, I am suggesting National Govt. It should be formed in a state or at the center in the following scenario,

·         Hung parliament or state assembly as voters did not given clear majority to any political party or political alliance in the election.

·         Central or state government loses the majority in the house and remaining term is more than 1 year.

·         Central or state government loses in no-confidence motion, new govt. formation is impossible and remaining term is more than 1 year.

·         Prime Minister or Chief Minister recommends dissolution of house and remaining term is more than 1 year.   

·         One-time term extension to any state govt. during passing of ‘One Nation One Election’ law.  (In Scenario 1, 16 state assemblies would be extended beyond 5 years). Such extensions are not good in any matured democracies and hence it should be look as one-time exception. 

Basic Principles of National Govt.:

As name suggest, it would not be a government of any political party or alliance. It would be people’s govt. and hence should be called as National Govt. We have seen such government from 1947 to 1951/52. Pandit Nehru led that govt. in the center. But this National Govt. will be different than that.

·         Prime Minister/Chief Minister would be from single largest party or pre-poll political alliance. The political party or alliance should give their choice of Prime Minister/Chief Minister to Hon. President of India / State Governor. Hon. President of India or State Governor will not have any say in the suggested candidate.  

·         Leader of opposition will be decided by second largest political party or pre-poll alliance. The political party or alliance should give their choice of leader of opposition to Hon. President of India/State Governor. Hon. President of India or State Governor will not have any say in suggesting leader of opposition.

·         Open ballot or secret ballot (based on what Constitution of India allows) voting should be done for speaker of Loksabha or president of state assembly.

·         Hon. President of India or State Governor will decide the size of ministry as per prevailing rules. They will distribute the number of ministers exactly as per percentage of MP or MLA each political party or pre-poll political alliance have won in the election or have in the current house.

·         State Governor, nominated Chief Minister, President of political parties will jointly decide the portfolio distribution of state council of ministry. If there is no agreement on portfolio, then Governor’s decision will be final.

·         President of India, nominated Prime Minister and President of political parties will jointly decide the portfolio distribution of council of ministry. It there is no agreement on portfolio, then President’s decision will be final.

·         The Chief Minister and Prime Minister should be enabled/Strengthened so that he/she can run the govt. effectively and he/she gets proper support from ministers from other political parties.

If remainder tenure of Loksabha or State Assembly is less than 1 year. Then President of India will decide whether he/she would recommend forming a National Government or impose President’s rule in the center or any state. If he/she chooses to impose President rules, then he/she will form a council of minister of his/her choice. He/she can give such freedom to governor to select council of ministry or select council of ministry himself/herself in the state in consultation with cabinet.

If all the above efforts for avoiding fresh election are failed, remainder tenure of Loksabha or state assembly is more than 18 months, the cabinet recommends for dissolution of Loksabha or state assembly, then fresh election should be conducted. However, the new govt. will be formed only for remaining tenure. In short, if the previous govt. fails after completing 3 years, the new elected govt. tenure will only for 2 years. This holds true for state or center. 

Criticism:

Implementation of ONOE is huge constitutional activity. Therefore, its criticism is very obvious and understandable. INC, TMC, CPI, NCP, AIMIM have already registered their opposition to this idea to Election Commission of India. There are many people who have opposed this idea.

Criticism	My Response
ONOE will need huge constitutional amendments. Many Articles of Constitution need to be changed. The real benefits can’t be quantified for ONOE.	It is indeed a huge constitutional amendment. But cost saving, impact on development work can be approximately calculated.
The current systems where elections are held continuously have not impacted on democracy of India or not created any constitutional issue. The difference between disadvantages of current system and advantages of ONOE are not justifiable	This is typical mentality of status quo, why to change, who will take the responsibility of its failure. I think we need to get out of such thinking. New experiments, innovation, improvements in laws, processes must be done in democracy. We are the largest and vibrant democracy in the world. We need to lead by example.
Voters will vote similarly in all 3 elections and it will give advantage to national parties.	Some report says that 77% voters will vote to the same party, if elections are held simultaneously. Whereas 61% voters will vote to the same party, if elections are held separately. There are 31 instances of simultaneous elections since 1989. Voters selected the same party in 24 times and they chose different party 7 times. I think statistics does not prove this point. In fact, it proves that voters are wisely voting. We should trust the judgment of votes. I think Indian votes are more matured now. I had written a blog (Click on it) on it previously. Look at General election in 2019. Orissa elected Naveen Patnaik and Andhra Pradesh elected Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy as Chief Minister during Modi wave.
National issues will overpower local issues.	Again this is showing no confidence on wisdom of voters. Voters defeated BJP in Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh state assembly election in Jan 2019. The same voters defeated Congress in general election in May 2019 completely. Same thing happened in New Delhi election in Feb 2020. These elections very clearly shows that voters are wise enough to choose and vote differently, if they think so.
ONOE election will help only to national parties. Regional parties will have disadvantage and they will be marginalized in future	The data does not support this claim. On the contrary, the data given above defeats this claim. However, my personal view is that we have too many political parties in India. We should have lesser numbers of political parties.

ONOE will be not be successful, if we continue with the current set of conditions, system and processes. India should think about comprehensive electoral reforms along with “One Nation One Election from Panchayat to Parliament”. The following are my suggestions for electoral reforms.

Electoral Reforms:

Electoral Reforms	Benefits
The current process of preparing voters list needs to be completely overhauled. It should be made automatic using Aadhar Card or Citizen’s card. Vote list should be completely digital and human intervention in preparing it should be completely stopped. Each eligible citizen’s name should appear in the voter list based on the address given in his/her Aadhar card.	·         Incidence of voter name missing will be eliminated. ·         Accurate voter list will help in increasing the voting percentage. It will reflect correct people’s mandate.   ·         Eliminates bogus voting
Modification of constituency should be done online and automatic. Aadhar based OTP validation can be implemented for modification of constituency.	·         Students, bachelor employees move their locations very frequently. Their Aadhar card will have address of their native place. They should be able to vote wherever they are currently. ·         Senior citizens frequently visit their children in different cities. They will be able to vote if they are visiting their children.
Right to recall should be implemented. Many countries have right to recall law. It has been used for destabilization also. However, it does not mean that it is wrong. Therefore, citizen should have right to recall their elected members who is incapable, corrupt or criminal	·         Elected MLA and MP will have constant pressure of performing.
Role of technology should be enhanced in election and electoral practices. Election should become more and more digital and paperless. The current Corona Pandemic has given the biggest challenge to democratic elections. Use of technology can prove effective in conducting election during pandemic Internet and mobile phone has reached to almost every household today. Elderly citizen, differently challenged citizen, hospitalized patients and other category govt deemed fit should be allowed to vote online on the voting day	·         Increase in voting percentage ·         Simplification of electoral practices ·         Reduction of manual work ·         Paperless election ·         Hospitalized patients, immobilized senior citizen will be able to exercise their right to vote. ·         Security personnel, officers of election duty will be able to vote online.
Many countries have provisions of penalizing voters if they don’t vote. However, we should motivate, give incentive to citizen for voting e.g. employed people can get some discount in property tax or income tax, students can get discount in tuition fees etc. lucky draw for voters to increase curiosity.	·         Increase in voting percentage.
Many states have Legislative Councils. But few states do not have it. MLC election has become the source of political corruption. Article 169 should be completely abolished.	·         Political corruptions will reduce
NOTA rules are very vague. They should be strengthened.	·         It will serve the purpose of NOTA

My Take:

Although it is huge constitutional change to onboard ONOE journey, it should be done. Govt should declare the calendar of steps towards ONOE immediately. We should get rid of the mentality of why change, status quo and select the path of innovation, new ideas, new experiments to improve democracy. The required amendments should be completed before March-22 so that ONOE will be a reality from 2024 general election. The Electoral reforms should be done before 2024 general election. Our current experience of CAA, Agricultural reforms, opposition parties will certainly oppose such reform for sake of opposing it. Therefore, all the stakeholder should be brought together. Awareness within citizen should be encouraged. Govt must arrange conferences in various cities on this subject. Citizen should actively take part in these conferences. This will help in shaping people’s opinion. Once society forms their opinion in favor of ONOE, political parties will fall in line.

Satish Gundawar

10-Dec-2020

References:

https://niti.gov.in/writereaddata/files/document_publication/Note%20on%20Simultaneous%20Elections.pdf

https://adrindia.org/content/discussion-%E2%80%9Csimultaneous-elections-%E2%80%93-possibilities-and-challenges%E2%80%9D-26th-oct-wednesday

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/Breaking-out-of-election-mode/article15422727.ece