One nation, one election debate: EC says poll code vital for ensuring level playing field

New Delhi: One of the key reasons cited by the government to push for simultaneous polls has been that frequent imposition of model code disrupts development work and normal public life, but the Election Commission has asserted it is a "vital instrumentality" aimed at providing level playing field in polls.

According to the bills brought by the government to implement 'one nation, one election', there is an imperative need for holding simultaneous elections for various reasons including polls becoming expensive and time-consuming.

The Constitution amendment bill to implement 'one nation, one election' said the imposition of a Model Code of Conduct in poll-bound parts of the country puts on hold the entire development programmes and causes disruption in normal public life.

It said that frequent poll code imposition also impacts the functioning of services and diverts the man manpower from their core activities to election duties for prolonged periods.

But the poll authority is of the view that "it would not be correct to view the application of MCC in terms of disruption as it is a vital instrumentality aimed at providing level playing field to all stakeholders involved in campaign".

Responding to a questionnaire in March 2023 by the law commission on simultaneous polls, the EC had said the applicability of the model code depends on the cycle and frequency of elections and rationalisation of the same would, to that extant, curtail the time of MCC.

"It has been evolved by the Election Commission in consultation with political parties as a voluntarily code of conduct to bc followed by all stakeholders and is a integral to the design of conducting free and fair elections and for credible outcomes," it said.

The EC's stand on various aspects of simultaneous polls shared with the law commission and the department of legal affairs in the Union law ministry has been provided to the members of the joint committee of parliament examining the bills on simultaneous polls.

The EC's stand was also provided to the high-level committee on 'one nation, one election' chaired by former president Ram Nath Kovind.

The EC said, it has itself consistently evolved a strategy to keep the MCC period to the "bare minimum required" from the date of announcement to completion of election process.

The law commission had asked EC its view on the argument that the "periodical elections lead to policy paralysis owing to the imposition of MCC?"