House endorses election-related bills, paving way for EC to conduct elections

Kathmandu / Sept 4: The Legislature-Parliament today endorsed the much-awaited separate bills related to the election to the members of the House of Representatives; and the State Assembly.

The passage of the bills has paved the way for the Election Commission EC) to hold the elections which have been scheduled for November 27 and December 7 in two rounds.

Earlier, the EC was demanding the government for election-related laws as soon as possible.

The third meeting of the Legislature-Parliament today endorsed the bills. Home Minister Janardan Sharma presented the proposals before the meeting, seeking the passage of the bills.

As per the provision in the bill relating to the election of the House of Representatives, any political party shall secure three percent of the total ballots to win a seat under the Proportional Representation system and this means any party failing to garner the three percent electoral threshold is not getting a PR seat in the House of Representatives.

Likewise, individual convicted of corruption case and serious moral insolvency shall not be allowed to become a candidate for the election to the members of House of Representatives.

There is no provision for “no vote” in the bill.

It has stated about the ground of inclusion for the closed list of PR candidates, with ensuring 13.9 percent participation of dalits, 28.7 percent for indigenous nationalities, 31.2 for khas arya, 15.3 for Madhesi, 6.6 for Tharus and 4.4 percent for the Muslim community.

Similarly, the bill has mentioned that election symbols would be provided on the basis of alphabetic order of the name of independent candidates in the election of House of Representatives.

Before this, Shyam Kumar Shrestha, Janakraj Joshi, Prem Suwal, Chitra Bahadur KC, Baijanath Chaudhary Tharu,Parashuram Tamang, Chudamani Jangali BK and Shakti Bahadur Basnet had participated in discussion on the bill.

Call for making House of Representatives and state assemblies election successful

Responding to queries raised during the discussion, Home Minister Janardan Sharma said that the bill was brought to hold the elections of House of Representatives and state assemblies.

He said that there would be political stability and constitution would be implemented after the election. The Home Minister said, “The government has announced the election of House of Representatives and state assemblies. I request all political parties to make the elections successful.”

Similarly, the meeting also unanimously approved the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization.

Speaker Onsari Gharti had presented the proposal before the Parliament seeking its approval. The next meeting of the Legislature-Parliament is scheduled on September 8. RSS