One Nation One Election: To implement its plan of holding simultaneous elections in the country, the government is likely to bring three bills, out of which two will be related to constitutional amendment.
One of the proposed constitutional amendment bills relates to holding local body elections along with the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. This will require the ratification of at least 50 percent of the states.
Moving forward with its ‘One Country, One Election’ plan, the government earlier this month appointed a high-level committee to hold simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha, state assemblies and local bodies in a phased manner after a nationwide consensus building exercise. accepted the recommendations.
Lok Sabha and Assembly elections will be held simultaneously
The proposed first constitutional amendment bill will relate to the provision for simultaneous holding of Lok Sabha and state assembly elections.
Citing the recommendations of the high level committee, sources said that an attempt will be made to amend Article 82A by adding sub-section (1) related to ‘due date’ in the proposed bill. In this, sub-section (2) will be included in Article 82A related to simultaneous termination of the tenure of Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies.
It is also proposed to amend Article 83(2) and insert new sub-sections (3) and (4) related to the tenure of the Lok Sabha and its dissolution. It also contains provisions related to dissolution of assemblies and amendment of Article 327 to include the words “simultaneous elections”.
The recommendation states that this bill will not require ratification by at least 50 percent of the states.
The proposed second Constitution Amendment Bill will require ratification by at least 50 percent of the state legislatures as it will deal with subjects related to state affairs.
It will propose to amend the constitutional provisions relating to preparation of electoral rolls by the Election Commission (EC) in consultation with State Election Commissions (SECs) for elections to local bodies.
Civic elections within 100 days of Lok Sabha-Assembly
Constitutionally, the EC and SEC are separate bodies. The Election Commission conducts elections for the President, Vice President, Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, State Assemblies and State Legislative Councils, while the SEC has the authority to conduct elections for local bodies like municipalities and panchayats.
The proposed Second Constitution Amendment Bill will also provide for simultaneous holding of elections to the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies as well as elections to Municipalities and Panchayats by adding a new Article 324A.
The third Bill will be a general Bill to amend the provisions of the three laws relating to the Union Territories – Puducherry, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir – so as to align the tenure of these Houses with that of the other Assemblies and the Lok Sabha, as provided for in the First Constitutional Amendment. Is proposed.
The laws which are proposed to be amended include the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act-1991, the Union Territory Government Act-1963 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019.
The proposed bill will be a general law that will not require any amendment to the Constitution and will not require ratification by the states.
There will be 18 amendments in the Constitution
The high-level committee had proposed amendments in three articles, inclusion of 12 new sub-sections in the existing articles and changes in three laws related to Union Territories with Legislative Assemblies. The total number of amendments and new entries is 18.
this year Lok Sabha elections In its report submitted to the government in March, just before the announcement, the committee had recommended implementing “One Nation, One Election” in two phases.
It suggests, in the first phase, simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and state assemblies and in the second phase, elections to local bodies like panchayats and municipal bodies within 100 days of the general elections.