MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS

Posted 15 Apr 2024

5 min read

Why in the News?

The Supreme Court invalidated and annulled the outcome of the mayoral elections held for the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation.

About Municipal Elections

Municipal elections refer to the elections held to elect representatives for local urban governing bodies.
Elections for the Municipal Corporations are held as per the Municipal Corporation Act framed by the legislature of the respective state government, whereas elections for the Municipalities and the Town Panchayats are held as per respective Municipal Act.

Urban Local Bodies

A Municipal Corporation has three authorities: the Council, the Standing Committee, and the Commissioner.
- The Council, comprising councilors, is the deliberative and legislative wing of the Corporation that is headed by a mayor. He is assisted by a Deputy Mayor.
  - Though the Mayor is an ornamental figure, he is recognised as the first citizen of the city.
- The standing Committees were created to facilitate the working of the Council which is too large in size.
- The Municipal Commissioner is responsible for the implementation of the decisions taken by the Council and its Standing Committees.
Indian cities largely follow the ‘commissioner as chief executive’ (CACE) model as opposed to the directly elected executive mayor’ (DEEM) model:
- DEEM Model: It’s a strong mayor model where a mayor has extensive executive power.
- CACE model: It’s a weak mayor model where the executive power lies in the hands of the commissioner (An Indian Administrative Service officer).
Every State in the country has enacted legislation for the constitution of the Municipalities in the State specifying their functions, structure, resource and their role in civic administration.

Composition of Municipalities (Art 243R): All the seats in a Municipality shall be filled by persons chosen by direct election from the territorial constituencies in the Municipal area.
- For this purpose, each Municipal area shall be divided into territorial constituencies to be known as wards.
Reservation of seats (Art 243T): Seats are reserved for weaker sections, Scheduled Caste/Tribes, Women, and other groups as per respective municipal Acts.
Duration of Municipalities (Art 243U): 5 yearsfrom the date appointed for its first meeting.
- Elections to constitute a municipality are required to be completed before the expiration of the duration of the municipality.
- If the municipality is dissolved before the expiry of 5 years, the elections for constituting a new municipality are required to be completed within a period of 6 months from the date of its dissolution.
State Election Commission (Art 243ZA): The superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls for, and the conduct of, all elections to the Municipalities shall be vested in the SEC.

Need for fair and timely Municipal Elections:

The ‘First-mile’ Connect: Municipalities are critical since councilors serve as ‘first mile’ elected citizens’ representatives.
- India has 87,000+ councilors (an elected representative of a ward) across its 4,700+ cities, representing an average of over 4,300 citizens in each ward.
Tackle grassroots level issues: Timely elections would ensure local action which is required to tackle the 21st-century human development priorities which includes environmental sustainability, primary healthcare, gender equality and jobs and livelihoods.
Efficient utilization of funds: for e.g., Elected councilors play an important role in the utilization of the fund allocated by the Fifteenth.
Commission (allocated Rs. 26,000 crores) for municipalities towards primary healthcare.

Challenges in Municipal Elections

Untimely elections: Despite the SC-specific direction in Suresh Mahajan v. State of Madhya Pradesh (2022) State governments do not hold timely elections for urban local governments.
- Over 1,500 municipalities did not have elected councils in place from 2015 to 2021 across States.
Delay in Council Formation: Even after elections, councils are not constituted, and elections of mayors, deputy mayors and standing committees are delayed.
- In Karnataka, there was a delay of 12-24 months in the formation of elected councils after the declaration of election results in most of the 11 city corporations.
Delimitation and reservation: Most of the time state delayed the delimitation process, which in turn delayed council elections.
- Power of delimitation of wards, reservation of seats for the council and rotation policy of seats for the posts of Mayor/President, Deputy-Mayor/Vice-Presidents and wards were vested with the State Government in most of the state.
  - Three States, Kerala, Maharashtra, and West Bengal have empowered the SEC to delimit wards.
Inconsistent Mayoral terms: In India, 17% of cities including five of the eight largest ones have mayoral terms less than five years.
- The terms of mayors, deputy mayors and standing committees being less than five years leads to frequent elections.
- Mayors, whether directly or indirectly elected are affected by the domineering presence of the states.
SECs lack power: As they depend on state governments to complete the delimitation of ward boundaries and to notify reservations for women as well as marginalized communities.
Voter Apathy: Voter turnout for municipal elections has been consistently lower than parliamentary and state assembly elections.
- For Example, the 2020 Delhi assembly saw a 62.59% turnout, 11.85% more than local council elections.

Way forward

Empowering SECs: Strengthening SECs and giving them a more significant role in the entire election process can help ensure timely, free, and fair municipal elections.
- SECs can be involved in the elections of mayors, deputy mayors and standing committees.
The power of delimitation: Must be vested in the SECs or an independent Delimitation Commission in each State for conducting the delimitation and reservation process.
Single electoral roll: A single electoral roll for all three tiers of Government as suggested by the High-level Committee on Simultaneous Elections will reduce redundancy and duplication across multiple agencies.