The AAP has opposed the proposal for simultaneous elections.
The party has told the Kovind committee that this would damage parliamentary democracy and encourage defections by allurement in lieu of minuscule financial gains.
A high-level committee under former President Ram Nath Kovind has been set up to examine a proposal to have simultaneous polls and a single voter list for parliamentary, Assembly and local body elections.
In its submission, the AAP said: “ONOE (One Nation One Election) will effectively transform the recurring boundary on democratic power into a countdown boundary, which would reduce the (con)temporaneous distribution of democratic power to just two instants in time… The proposal in the draft report will cause elections to be plated on one central overarching stage, while regional issues and aspirations will be obliterated.”
AAP added: “We vehemently oppose any attempt to amend the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution to allow for appointment or selection of the Prime Minister/chief minister by consensus amongst political parties. Any kind of relaxation in the anti-defection law/Tenth Schedule to enable such selection will raise a strong suspicion of misuse of money and muscle power…"
“It is rather strange that with such whopping budgets and corporate loan write-offs, the supporters of ONOE have trouble sparing a mere 0.1 per cent of the budget expenditure for safeguarding the most essential feature of a democracy-free and fair elections.”