1 pc threshold provision for PR seats proposed

Anyone convicted of criminal case can be candidate six years after serving the sentences

Senior citizens living in old-age homes can cast votes in nearby booths

KATHMANDU, April 2: The Election Commission (EC) has finally proposed a provision that makes it mandatory for any political party to bag at least one percent of total valid votes to be eligible to get seats under the proportional representative electoral system.

The commission forwarded a draft of ordinance to this effect to the government on Monday. Though the commission, in the draft ordinance, had earlier proposed 1.5 percent as threshold criteria, it reduced the threshold to one percent as leaders from several small parties strongly protested the legal arrangement.[break]

"The commission has reduced the threshold provision from 1.5 percent to 1 percent to give a greater voice to small political parties," Madhu Prasad Regmi, joint secretary at the commission, told Republica.

The ordinance draft will come into effect as an election law after the government forwards it to the president´s office and the president endorses it.

With the implementation of this provision, many of the 33 political parties that were represented in the dissolved Constituent Assembly (CA) will not be able to secure seats in the coming elections in the same strength. In the past, there was no threshold provision for eligibility under the proportional representative system and 25 political parties managed to secure their seats in the 601-member CA. Due to split of some political parties, the number of parties reached to 33 by the time of CA dissolution in May 2012.

Only nine of the 54 political parties that contested the CA polls in 2008 had obtained votes above one percent of the total valid votes cast.

But a political party can ensure its seat in the legislature if it wins a seat directly from a constituency under the first-past-the-post electoral system even if the number of votes received by the organization under the proportional quota is less than one percent.

The commission in the ordinance forwarded to the government has proposed several other new provisions in election-related laws.

The proposed provision bars persons convicted of criminal offenses or involved in moral turpitude from becoming candidates. Such a person can be candidate only six years after completing their sentences handed down by courts or other legal authorities.

The ordinance also for the first time listed the types of crimes and offenses for which a person can be restricted from becoming an election candidate.

As per the ordinance, a person who is convicted of murder, theft, robbery, misappropriation of foreign currency, kidnap, rape, corruption, human trafficking, money laundering, banking irregularities, passport misuse, drug smuggling, jail break or abbeting jail break by others, smuggling of protected wildlife or vegetation or objects of archeological importance, illegal trade and spying, among other illegal activities, or has shown moral turpitude, cannot be a member of any political party if he or she has not completed serving the sentence handed down by a court or any other legal authority.

"The new provision has made it mandatory for a candidate to give his/her property details and make it clear that the person is not facing any criminal case at the time," said Regmi. "If the details claimed in the self-declarations statements are found to be false, the election results concerning the candidate will be invalid."

The draft ordinance has also proposed registering senior citizens living in various old-age homes in the voters´ list and allowing them to cast votes under the proportional representative system at nearby booths.