In India, there is always an election happening across various states and union territories due to which the governance, policy making and its implementation comes to a grinding halt. To address this issue and streamline India's democratic process the Indian government has introduced two bills aiming to synchronise the elections held for the Lok Sabha, State Legislative Assemblies and local body elections. This was done after a High-Level Committee on One Nation, One Election chaired by former President Ram Nath Kovind submitted its report to President Droupadi Murmu in March 2024.

The Committee proposed amendments to Constitution of India to enable simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha, State Assemblies, and local bodies. It recommended a phased approach to implementing simultaneous elections, starting with the synchronization of Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies elections in the first phase. In the second phase, it recommended aligning elections Municipalities elections and Panchayat elections with Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies elections within 100 days.

History of Simultaneous Elections

Following independence, India held simultaneous elections for many years until the first major disruption in 1959 when Kerala's communist government was dismissed after strong resistance from religious and political groups. Similarly, the Haryana Government was dissolved in 1968 after facing rampant defection and fresh elections placed the state on a separate electoral schedule. In 1971, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi dissolved the Lok Sabha early to strengthen her position after the congress split, resulting in the desynchronization of national and state elections. Later, the idea of conducting simultaneous elections was been proposed before by the Election Commission of India in 1982 and the Law Commission in 1999.

The Need for One Nation, One Election

1. Model Code of Conduct: The Election Commission of India has designed the Model Code of Conduct, a set of guidelines aimed at ensuring free and fair elections. The MCC is imposed in the poll-bound parts of the country upon the announcement of the election schedule and halts policymaking, development projects, and government schemes.
   • With elections happening at different levels—national, state, and local—these disruptions often stretch into months, impacting governance and development activities.
   • This repeated halt impacts essential services, diverts manpower from their core duties, slows down public investments, and leaves funds allocated for schools, hospitals, and roads unutilized.
   One Nation, One Election bill will limit the time period of the Model Code of Conduct, helping to reduce the repeated disruptions to governance and development activities.
    
2. Expensive Elections: The cost of holding the 2019 Lok Sabha election was estimated to be around Rs 60,000 crores. Separate state and local body elections add significantly to this financial burden, making elections incredibly expensive.
   • Holding simultaneous elections could significantly reduce these expenses by consolidating Lok Sabha, State Assembly, and local body elections into a single cycle.
   • Estimates suggest it could potentially boost India's GDP by 1.5% or add about 4.5 lakh crores to the GDP, which is almost half of what is spent on healthcare and one-third of the education budget.
   • Additionally, simultaneous elections could also reduce inflation by 1%, increase government expenditure by 18%, and boost investments in the economy by 0.5%.
      
3. Administrative Hurdles: Frequent electoral cycles disrupt essential services and developmental activities, impacting the governance process.
   • Security forces, teachers, local officials, and administrative systems are overburdened with election work, resulting in delays.
   • Simultaneous elections could address these challenges by minimizing repeated interruptions in the functioning of various departments. It will enable the administration to focus on their core tasks rather than election duties, thereby ensuring efficiency in governance.
      
4. Political Focus: With elections happening every few months, politicians are more concerned with the elections than core governance.
   By implementing the idea of One Nation One Election, elections will be held less frequently, government will function for more days and politicians will be more focused on governance.

International Perspective

South Africa holds elections for its National Assembly and Provincial Legislatures at the same time every five years. This approach helps create smooth governance at both national and provincial levels. On the other hand, elections for municipalities happen on their own, but also follow a five-year pattern. This setup strikes a balance between running things and meeting the need for local control.

Sweden uses a system of proportional representation to assign parliamentary seats based on each party's portion of the votes. The country holds elections for its Parliament, County Councils, and Municipal Councils at the same time every four years. These take place on the second Sunday in September. Municipal assemblies though, follow a different five-year cycle. This method helps to simplify election processes while giving municipal governments room to operate on their own schedules.

In Germany, they blend a parliamentary democracy with smart methods, like the constructive vote of no-confidence. It mandates that a new leader must be okayed before booting out the current government head to keep things stable. The Bundestag gets to pick the Chancellor, which adds extra steps to make sure the switch in leadership goes smooth.

Over in Japan, the Prime Minister gets the job from the National Diet, and then the Emperor gives the thumbs up. Having the Emperor as a figurehead adds a nice touch to Japan's parliamentary system. They're all about keeping things steady and mixing the old-school with democratic ways.

In 2019, Indonesia chose its President Vice-President, and lawmakers at every level all on one day. A Presidential hopeful needs to snag more than half the total votes and at least 20% in over half of the provinces. The February 2024 polls marked a huge event worldwide, with a whopping 200 million folks casting votes in five different government layers.

How will it be implemented?
With the One Nation One Election bill, the Indian government seeks to conduct simultaneous elections with the aim to bring ease of governance, financial efficiency and logistical efficiency. The bill proposes to hold Lok Sabha election, State elections and local body elections all at once. In this manner, voters will be able to cast their votes for both the Lok Sabha and State elections all on the same day.

The initiative will be implemented in two phases: In the first phase the Lok Sabha and State elections will be held together and in the second phase panchayats and municipalities elections will be conducted within 100 days of general elections.

The proposal for simultaneous elections requires several constitutional amendments, including:

• Article 83: defines the maximum duration of the Lok Sabha.
• Article 85: pertains to the dissolution of the Lok Sabha by the President.
• Article 172: outlines the duration of state legislatures.
• Article 174: addresses the dissolution of state legislatures.
• Article 356: relates to the imposition of President's Rule in states.

Challenges to Implementing Simultaneous Election

The Constitution of India upholds separate electoral cycles for the Union and State governments, ensuring their autonomy within the federal structure. Holding simultaneous elections may pose a challenge to this principle, as it would violate the "Basic Structure Doctrine" established by the Supreme Court. According to this doctrine, certain features of the Constitution are fundamental and cannot be altered, even through constitutional amendments. Amendments to Articles 83, 85, 172, and 174 would be needed, along with amendments to Article 356 which gives power to the President to dissolve the Lok Sabha or State Assemblies and impose President rule.

Simultaneous elections could overshadow regional issues with national agendas, putting regional political parties at a disadvantage while allowing national parties to potentially dominate the elections. This centralization of power and weakening influence of the state governments will undermine the federal structure and could lead to inefficient and less effective administration due to local issues not being address by the government.

Instances where a state or central government collapses unexpectedly, could disrupt the synchronized electoral cycle implemented by One Nation, One Election (ONOE). This would result in additional electoral costs and administrative complexities, undermining the cost-efficiency and intended benefits of holding simultaneous elections for all levels of government.

Conclusion
The One Nation One Election idea aims to synchronize elections for the Lok Sabha, State Assemblies and local bodies to enhance governance by reducing frequent disruptions in administration and developmental activities. This concept will help in curtailing financial and logistical burden of holding multiple elections. The imposition of Model Code of Conduct whenever any election is around the corner causes interruptions and impacts policymaking, development projects and welfare schemes.

However, by synchronizing the elections for the Lok Sabha, State Assemblies, and local bodies, simultaneous elections will foster uninterrupted governance and development by reducing workload of security forces and administrative machinery and enabling them to focus on their core duties.

Nonetheless, implementing the idea faces several challenges including potential violations of the federal setup and the Basic Structure of the Constitution. Moreover, conducting simultaneous elections may result in national issues dominating the political landscape, thereby suppressing the regional issues. If these challenges are addressed, the One Nation One Election initiative has the potential to boost economic growth and reduce administrative burden while transforming the democratic process of the country.

The initiative would require appropriate constitutional amendments and safeguards to ensure its successful implementation and achieve its aim to reform the system while bringing efficiency to its governance and electoral management systems.