Will Simultaneous Polls Help Cut Cost? Election Chief Says Study Needed

Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat has said the effectiveness of simultaneous polls in cutting cost will need to be studied before it is established.
On the other hand, he said that apprehensions aired by some political parties over one-nation, one-poll were borne out of a "status quoist" attitude and that simultaneous polls did not pose any threat to the federal freedom.

"Actually, not much exercise (study) has been done on this. The issue has many dimensions," Mr Rawat said in an interview with IANS when asked if simultaneous elections will actually save costs.

"Initially, it will require more money to procure so many machines (voting and paper audit trail machines). It will require more warehouses to store these machines," he said.

He said once the required Constitutional amendments are in place for simultaneous elections, the government will have to provide the logistics.

"The logistics include the EVMs, CAPFs (central armed police forces), vehicles, polling personnel… Because wherever we go, the parties tell us to deploy central police forces. They say they don't have faith in the state police," he said.

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