India Moves Toward Simultaneous Local and National Polls
- Scheme needs approval by a two-third majority in parliament
- The move comes six months after a comittee recommendation
A polling station during the sixth phase of voting for national elections in Delhi, in May.
Photographer: Prakash Singh/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
India’s federal cabinet Wednesday accepted the recommendation by a government-appointed committee for conducting national and state elections simultaneously, a policy favored by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The cabinet’s announcement is many steps away from the enforcement of the policy. The implementation of the plan, named ‘One Nation, One Election’, would require support of parliament by a two-third majority, among other approvals. The federal government’s argument for concurrent elections has been to cut down expenditure on elections and improve efficiency for the duration of five years that a state or national government presides at a time.