Possibility of Common Electoral Roll discussed

Possibility of Common Electoral Roll discussed

Part of: GS-Prelims and GS-II – Polity & Governance

In News:

• Recently, the possibility of having a common electoral roll for elections to the panchayat, municipality, state assembly and the Lok Sabha were discussed by the Indian Central government. 

Important value additions 

• In many states, the voters’ list for the panchayat and municipality elections is different from the one used for Parliament and Assembly elections.
• The supervision and conduct of elections are supervised by two authorities — the Election Commission (EC) and the State Election Commissions (SECs).

• EC: Supervise elections to the President and Vice-President offices, and to Parliament, the state assemblies and the legislative councils.
• SECs: Supervise municipal and panchayat elections. 
• They are free to prepare their own electoral rolls for local body elections, and this exercise does not have to be coordinated with the EC. 
• Each SEC is governed by a separate state Act.

Do you know? 

• Currently, all states, except Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Odisha, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and the Union Territory of J&K, adopt EC’s rolls for local body polls.
• The pitch for a single voters list is not new. 
• The Law Commission recommended it in its 255th report in 2015. 
• The EC too adopted a similar stance in 1999 and 2004.