The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the 'One Nation, One Election' report submitted by former President Ram Nath Kovind clearing the way for the start of legal procedure. The Prime Minister Modi-led government has time and again iterated its support for the concept. While the ruling party and many others have welcomed the government's move, the opposition has opposed the ONOE. The leaders of the Congress party and others have called it a political gimmick, demanding to conduct the upcoming assembly elections simultaneously, if serious. However, leaders like Asaduddin Owasi have called it against the federal structure of the Constitution.
Process to implement One Nation, One Election
This takes us to a very important question, what is the procedure for its implementation? According to the Committee report, for the transition, a date after the Lok Sabha elections will be decided. In the states with elections after that date, their tenure will be short-terminated to come parallel to general elections. Additionally, the transition to ONOE will be done in two phases.
In the first phase, Lok Sabha and Assembly elections will take place simultaneously. and in second phase, elections for municipalities and Panchayats will take place simultaneously. And for these two separate phases, there will be two Constitutional Amendment Acts. Under these two acts, a total of 15 amendments will be made which includes, the insertion of new provisions and amending others.
Introduction of First Constitutional Amendment Bill
According to the committee's recommendations, the first Bill would insert a new article— 82A —into the Constitution. Article 82A will establish the process by which the country will transition to simultaneous elections.
Article 82A will have the following 5 Sections:
- Article 82A(1): "On the date of the first sitting of the House of the People after a general election”, the President will issue a notification bringing Article 82A into effect. The date of this notification “shall be called the Appointed date”.
- Article 82A(2): It will state that “all the Legislative Assemblies constituted in any general election held after the appointed date shall come to an end on the expiry of the full term of the House of the People”.
- Article 82A(3): It will mandate the ECI to hold the simultaneous elections.
- Article 82A(4): If the Election Commission believes that elections to any assembly cannot be conducted simultaneously, it may recommend the President to declare by an Order, that the election to for such assembly may be conducted at a later date.
- Article 82(5): In such states, the deferred election results will only be valid till the next general elections and not 5 years and would again be conducted with the next general elections.
The Bill will also seek to amend Article 327, which gives Parliament the power to make laws relating to elections to Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, and state legislatures, including the preparation of electoral rolls and delimitation of constituencies.
Article 83 will be amended to change the "Duration of House of the Parliament" and Article 172 will be amended to change the "Duration of the State Legislatures". Certain laws related to the legislative Assemblies in UTs such as The Government of Union Territories Act, 1963, The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act, 1991, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.
Introduction of Second Constitutional Amendment Bill
The second Constitution Amendment Bill will be introduced in the Parliament as per the Kovind committee recommendations. This Bill would introduce Article 324A in the Constitution. This article will empower the government to make laws to ensure parallel elections of municipalities and panchayats with Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
A new subclause to Article 325 will suggest that there should be a single electoral roll for all the elections in a constituency.
Ratification by states
After the introduction of these two bills, the Parliament will follow the amendment procedures under Article 368. Since only Parliament is empowered to legislate the election laws regarding Lok Sabha and Assembly, the First Amendment bill will need no ratification from the states. However, the matters related to elections of Municipalities and Panchayats come under state subject. Therefore, the Second Amendment Bill for ONOE will have to be ratified by at least half of the states.
President's assent and implementation
After the ratification of second bill and being passed by either house with prescribed majorities, the Bills will be sent to the President for her assent. Once, she signs the bills, they will become Acts. Following this, the implementation will be done by the 'Implementation Panel', based on the provisions in these Acts.
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