At a meeting with officials of the Election Commission (EC) in the capital on Sunday afternoon, leaders of the fringe political parties terming the threshold “irrelevant” demanded that the proposed threshold be scrapped. [break]
EC, in draft amendments to election related acts, has proposed that a political party must secure 1.5 percent of the total valid votes cast in the election to be eligible for proportional seats in CA.
General Secretary of Sadbhawana Party Manish Suman argued that the proposed threshold would finish the existence of fringe political parties. “The threshold must be scraped,” he maintained.
Samajbadi Janata Party Chairman Prem Bahadur Singh maintained that the threshold would not be acceptable to any political party, except the major ones.
“Fifty percent seats each for first past the post (FPTP) and proportional system is also against the Interim Constitution,” said Singh, adding, “There will not be adequate representation of indigenous, Madhesi, Dalit and other marginalized communities, and women in CA if the proportional seats are reduced.”
Chairman of Dalit Janajati Party Bishwendra Paswan warned that they would burn the proposed ordinance if it gets endorsed along with the threshold provision. He also accused the EC of falling prey to the syndicate of major four political forces.
However, the major political parties -- UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML-- and EC have stood for the proposed eligibility threshold for proportional seats.
Chief Election Commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety defended the EC proposal, saying it is intended to encourage the fringe parties with similar ideologies to unite. “There are examples of 0.67 percent to 10 percent threshold in several democratic countries,” he maintained.
Asked if the threshold would be enforced, the chief election commissioner stated that it would depend on the political parties and the government.
However, Uprety said that the constitutional body would take a decision on whether to bring down the threshold on Monday. EC is likely to forward the draft amendment to electoral acts on Monday after finalizing it.
Advocate and CPN-UML leader Agni Kharel also stressed on setting eligibility threshold for proportional seats, saying it is an internationally accepted practice.
Also, the fringe political parties have objected to the EC proposal on increasing the deposit amount for CA candidates for both the FPTP and proportional seats. The constitutional body has increased the deposit amount for candidates of FPTP to Rs 5,000 from 3,000 and Rs 25,000 from 10,000 for candidates for proportional seats.
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