CII: One Nation, One Election Key to Economic Development

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has expressed its support for the concept of One Nation, One Election (ONOE), saying it will bring economic efficiency and reduce the cost of project delays by about half of current levels. The ONOE initiative aims to synchronize the election schedules for the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, thereby holding elections for both entities within a specified timeframe.

Benefits of ONOE

According to CII, frequent elections besides being expensive, can disrupt the policy making process, leading to uncertainty among businesses and investors and impose significant economic costs. CII President R Dinesh said that investment decisions by the private sector tend to slow down prior to the elections. Also, infrastructure and capex projects in the initial stages of implementation are affected due to delays arising from lack of approvals and clearances during imposition of the Model Code of Conduct for both General elections as well as States elections.

CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said that simultaneous elections will reduce the delays, bring down the costs of delay by about half, and enhance governance efficiency. He added that CII has been recommending simultaneous elections in India since 2012, basis the report of the CII Taskforce on Electoral Reforms.

CII also cited data from a report by The Centre for Media Studies, which estimated that around Rs 55,000 crore to Rs 60,000 crore were spent on the 2019 Lok Sabha and assembly elections in India, making it the world’s most expensive election. CII argued that holding elections together would save public money and resources that could be used for development purposes.

Models for ONOE

CII has proposed two models for the consideration of the High Level Committee on ONOE, chaired by former President of India Ram Nath Kovind. The first model involves single-stage simultaneous election cycle every five years. The second option in this model is to have an election cycle every five years and bring half of the states in the next general elections and add the rest in the forthcoming one.

Alternatively, for the second model, CII has proposed two stage simultaneous elections with a gap of at least 2.5 years. In fact, India started out with simultaneous elections with three consecutive general elections being held in 1957, 1962, and 1967.