The general proposals for the franchise are based upon the principle of
residence and the possession of certain property qualifications. In
addition the enfranchisement of all retired and pensioned officers of
the Indian Army, whether of commissioned or non-commissioned rank, is
recommended. This step was universally and strongly recommended in the
Punjab, and it is to extend to all provinces. The property qualification
is adapted to local conditions and is guided by the principle that the
franchise should be as broad as possible, consistently with the
avoidance of any such inordinate extension as might lead to a breakdown
of the machinery of election through weight of numbers. The large
proportion of illiterate voters, in the absence of a literary test, may
cause difficulty, but it has already been faced successfully in
municipal elections in India by the use of coloured ballot-boxes and
other like devices.
No rigid uniformity of property qualification has been sought, but the
committee have proposed the same qualification for all communities
within the same area. A substantially higher proportion of the urban
than of the rural population will be enfranchised. At present the total
number of electors for the provincial councils is 33,007, and of these
no fewer than 17,448 are Mohammedans, since that community enjoys direct
representation on an individual basis. The number of voters will be
raised under the scheme to 5,179,000, being 2.34 per cent of the total
population in the eight provinces, which is nearly 220,000,000.
The long established administrative unit of the "district" is made the
territorial area for constituencies but the relatively few cities with
large populations are to be separately represented. Occasionally towns
are grouped into separate urban constituencies. Single-member
constituencies are the general rule, but latitude is left to the local
Governments. Plural voting is to be forbidden, but this does not apply
to electors in constituencies formed for the representation of special
interests.