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bsc magazine subscription Published this articles page no 56 The last occasion when we had near-simultaneous elections in the country was in 1967 all Legislative Assemblies except those of Nagaland and Pondicherry going to polls with the Lok Sabha. The fourth Lok Sabha constituted in 1967 was dissolved prematurely in 1971 ahead of its normal term resulting in a mid-term Lok Sabha election. This was the beginning of the end of simultaneous elections. Extension of the term of Lok Sabha during the National Emergency declared in 1975 and the dissolution of Assemblies of some States after the 1977 Lok Sabha election further disturbed the cycle of concurrent elections. After the two pre-mature dissolutions of the Lok Sabha in 1998 and 1999 only four State Assemblies have been going to polls along with the Lok Sabha elections in the last two decades. The other States have Assembly elections at different times and we now have at least two rounds of Assembly general elections every year. Elections to the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies are held together if the terms of the Houses are ending around the same time. Sections 14 and 15 of the Representation of the People Act 1951 empower the Election Commission to notify elections any time during the last six months of the term of the House and not earlier than that. A lead time of twenty-five days from the date of notification is a statutorily required minimum period before a poll can be taken. The election schedule is announced a few days before the election notification as an advance notice to the stakeholders. Therefore if the terms of the Houses are expiring within a window of three to four months it would be legally possible to hold elections simultaneously to constitute the new Houses. In other words to contemplate simultaneous elections we need as a starting point a situation where the Lok Sabha and the Legislative Assemblies of all States and Union Territories have their terms ending together. bsc magazine subscription
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