QUE. Discuss in detail the possible legislation and challenges of One Nation, One Election.

The Union Cabinet on 12 December 2024 approved the One Nation, One Election (ONOE) Bill, a landmark proposal aimed at holding elections across the country.

• Potential benefits of One Nation, One Election

• Convenience in governance: Due to the campaigning during the elections, the decision-making capacity of the administration is affected. Due to the code of conduct, work in development programs, schemes and many projects is stopped.

• Other socio-economic benefits: Election-related work in schools has an adverse effect on the education of students. The revenue department is also involved in election work, due to which lakhs of working hours are wasted in unnecessary work instead of development.

• Security Forces Deployment: The process of conducting regular elections is cumbersome, complex and time-consuming. This process uses up security personnel and resources. This also leads to shortages of security personnel at the borders.

• Increasing communalism: In order to win elections, parties mislead voters with agendas based on caste, religion and sect, resulting in an increase in communal riots.

• Election expenditure: Frequent elections give rise to political corruption. The use of black money is increasing in election related matters. According to the report, Rs. 60,000 crore was spent in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The ‘One Nation, One Election’ proposal is necessary to reduce this expenditure.

• To reduce freebies: Continuous elections increase the prevalence of freebies, which harms the financial capacity of the state. Instead, holding parallel elections improves the financial condition of the states so that the money can be used for appropriate development programs.

• Potential Challenges of One Nation, One Election

• Obstacles in the electoral system: How to organize the first elections to the Legislative Assembly and Lok Sabha to hold ‘One Nation and One Election’ is a big question. Even after being organized, if the Lok Sabha or the Legislative Assembly cannot complete its term, then the question of the election cycle being disrupted again remains.

• Federalism related issue: The dissolution of the existing state assemblies by the Centre will create inconsistency with the established government and may harm the federalism.

• Voter related issue: There will be cases where voters are unable to make an effective distinction between the assembly and Lok Sabha elections. National issues will be taken into account in the assembly elections, while the Lok Sabha elections will be treated according to state issues.

• Loss to regional parties: With ‘parallel elections’ being held, the strong parties at the centre will have more influence in the elections. Regional or local parties that perform well in state-level elections will not get a level playing field, which will lead to political injustice.

• Reduction in accountability: With ‘parallel elections’, elections will be held only once every 5 years, resulting in a reduction in the contact between election representatives and politicians with the people and in participatory politics.

• Logistical Challenges: There are challenges related to availability of EVM machines, security issues of EVM machines, equipment and manpower for conducting parallel elections. According to a report, the cost of acquiring EVMs for more than one million polling stations for parallel elections will be around ~4000 crores.

• Legal dilemmas: The Law Commission, headed by Justice B.S. Chauhan, said that it is not possible to hold parallel elections within the framework of the existing Constitution. To make parallel arrangements, changes will be required in the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and the functioning of the Lok Sabha and the Legislative Assemblies.