In its 140-page report submitted to Regmi at the latter´s office at Singha Durbar, the CDC has recommended making some minor adjustments to the boundaries of election constituencies in more than a dozen districts in the Tarai-Madhes and Hill regions, in line with changes in the population as shown by the latest census of 2011, sources said.
Both the government and CDC members, however, remain tightlipped about the contents of the report, saying they are not authorized to make them public. "We have just submitted the report. It should be publicized only after a cabinet meeting endorses it. We are not authorized to say anything about its contents now," CDC Chairman and former Supreme Court justice Tahir Ali Ansari told media persons. [break]
The Ansari-led CDC has recommended maintaining a flat population threshold of 112,000 for election constituencies in both Tarai-Madhes and the Hill and Mountain regions. A similar CDC formed in 2007 before the April 2008 CA elections had set a population threshold of 94,372 for each constituency in Tarai-Madhes districts and 102,040 for each constituency in the Hill and Mountain districts, as per a political understanding to allocate election seats in proportion to the percentage of the population living in these regions.
While over 48 percent of the population lived in Tarai-Madhes, the remaining 52 percent lived in the Hill and Mountain regions, according to the census of 2001. Altogether 35 constituencies were then added to the then existing 205 election constituencies to keep to the political agreement reached with the agitating Madhes-based parties in 2007.
Amid demands from various Madhes-based parties that the election constituencies be delineated as per the latest census held in 2011, the Regmi-led poll government had formed a five-member CDC headed by Ansari. They took their oath of office and secrecy on June 25.
The original one-month deadline for the CDC was extended twice -- first by 10 days and later by seven days --as it could not accomplish its assigned task due to constitutional difficulties.
Though Article 154 (6) of the Interim Constitution allows proportional distribution of First Past the Post (FPTP) seats for every district, Article 154 (8) prevents reduction of the 205 constituencies that were delienated for the election held in 1999.
Another constitutional difficulty that the CDC faced was in adjusting the increased population in Tarai-Madhes within the existing 240 constituencies. Although Article 63 (A) of the Interim Constitution requires an increase in seats for the Tarai-Madhes region proportionate to the increase in population, it limits the total number of constituencies to 240.
The Ansari-led CDC thus had authority only to make some changes in the boundaries of the 35 constituencies that were added on as per the political understanding among parties just before the CA poll in 2008.
The recommendation of the CDC is likely to irk Madhes-based parties as it fails to meet their demand that 51 percent of the total 240 seats under FPTP be allocated to Tarai-Madhes as per the percentage of population shown by the latest census. "We are yet to learn what is in the report. But if what has come out in the media is true it is not acceptable”" said Chairman of Madhesi People´s Rights Forum-Nepal Upendra Yadav, who also heads the agitating Federal Democratic Front (FDF). The FDF is an alliance of various eight agitating parties.
"They can agree to amend the Interim Constitution to make Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi head of the government. But why cannot they bring amendments in the Interim Constitution to address this big national problem?" said Yadav venting his ire towards the four major parties for failing to agree amendments to the Interim Constitution.
According to sources, the CDC in the report has also made seven different recommendations concerning the delineation of the election constituencies .These include restructuring the VDCs and municipalities, delineating election constituencies after a gap of several years unlike every 10 years, and taking various aspects including population and geography into consideration while delineating an election constituency. "We have recommended that population alone should not be the basis of constituency delineation," said a member of the CDC.
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