Local Bodies Restructuring needed to hold elections: ECN

Kathmandu, Aug 9: Chief Election Commissioner Dr. Ayodhi Prasad Yadav Tuesday said that the Local Bodies Restructuring Commission should submit its report by mid-September and the government must implement the report by November in order to hold the elections of local bodies.

He was speaking at an interaction on the bills of Member of House of Representatives Election and Provincial Assembly Election.

He made it clear that if the government finalized the demarcation of local bodies in 2017, the election management body wouldn’t be able to conduct the election.

 “The demarcation of the local bodies and their names and administrative structures must be finalized on time.”

The Election Commission of Nepal (ECN) informed that it had almost prepared the required legal framework needed to conduct the elections of Federal Assembly, Provincial Assembly and local bodies.

It has forwarded the six election related bills to the government.

Dr. Yadav stated that the election management body had prepared the drafts of the bill related to political parties, Election Commission bill, bill related to the voters’ list, local body representative election bill and election offence and punishment bill, and sent them to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA).

The MoHA will forward the bills to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and then it will be tabled in the Legislature-Parliament.

Likewise, amendment proposal of the Local Body Election Procedure Act has been  stuck at the cabinet for the last four months.

The ECN has incorporated ‘right to reject’ option in the bill to amend the Local Body Election Procedure Act.

The bill also includes provision to ensure 50 per cent women representation in the local bodies including one of the two top positions, mayor or deputy mayor. 

According to the new constitution and federal setup of the country, about 10 election related laws should be formulated or amended.

The ECN is preparing the draft of Provincial Assembly Election bill, House of Representatives Election bill, Upper House Election bill and President and Vice-President Election bill.

Joint secretary of the Commission Sushil Koirala said that the bills of Provincial Assembly Election and House of Representative Election would be sent to the government by next week while bills on the election of Upper House and President and Vice-President would be sent by mid-September.

The House of Representatives Election bill has provision for threshold for proportionate representation election system. As per the provision any political party should garner at least 1.5 per cent of total votes cast in order to elect its candidates to the parliament.

Likewise, it has ensured 33 per cent representation of women in federal parliament.

If less than required women candidates are elected in the First-Past-the-Post election, the deficit number would be fulfilled by the proportionate representation election by selecting the women candidates from the list furnished by the political parties.