Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad supports simultaneous elections

 

As quoted by ANI, underlining the huge public expenditure and involvement of key officers in the electoral process, the Law Minister said that simultaneous elections will help in fine tuning the administration. He opined that stakeholders should wait for the recommendations of law commission.

According to media reports, the Law Commission, a body responsible for legal reforms would be holding a brainstorming session with all major political parties to discuss the feasibility of simultaneous elections. The two-day meeting is scheduled for July 7 and 8.

On several occasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed concern over the frequency of elections in the country. He also underlined the administrative problems associated with the model code of conduct. The Prime Minister has urged citizens to debate on the issue of simultaneous elections.

On April 17, a working draft on ‘Simultaneous Elections – Constitutional and Legal Perspective’, was published by the law commission. The Commission had recommended that the simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies could be Assemblies could be held in two phases from 2019. It further noted that at least two provisions of the Constitution should be amended and ratified by a majority of the states.