A meeting of the Constitutional Council held at Singh Durbar on Saturday evening had decided to respond to the letter sent by the president to Chairman of the Interim Election Council Khil Raj Regmi regarding of re-appointment of the three former commissioners of Election Commission. [break]
“The Constitutional Council has properly addressed the queries raised by the president on the issue,” said Information and Communications Minister Madhav Poudel.
Talking to Republica after the meeting, Minister for Home and Foreign Affairs Madhav Prasad Ghimire said the appointments would soon materialize.
According to Regmi´s Press Advisor Rajendra Prasad Pandey, the reply to the president´s letter was sent to him through Joint Secretary Shankar Pathak on Saturday evening.
Earlier, Regmi had called on President Yadav at the latter´s office in Shital Niwas to discuss the issue. Emerging from the meeting, Regmi told media persons that the meeting dwelt on legitimacy of the recommendation.
Similarly, an informal meeting of the High Level Political Committee (HLPC) held in the capital on Saturday morning also concluded that clause 20 of the ordinance on removing constitutional difficulties has already paved the way for re-appointment of former election commissioners.
President Yadav on Friday had written to Regmi asking him to clarify whether the Constitutional Council´s recommendation to reappoint former election commissioners would violate the existing constitutional provisions.
Yadav wrote to Regmi after the Constitutional Council on Thursday recommended to him to reappoint former acting chief election commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety as the chief election commissioner, and another former acting chief election commissioner Dolakh Bahadur Gurung and former commissioner Ayodhi Prasad Yadav as commissioners. The meeting had also recommended appointment of Rambhakta PB Thakur and Ila Sharma as EC commissioners.
The president´s had asked whether reappointment of former commissioners would attract clause 3 and 7 of Article 128 of the Interim Constitution.
Clause 3 of Article 128 of the Interim Constitution states that the term of office of the chief election commissioner and other election commissioners shall be six years from the date of appointment while clause 7 of the same article states that a person once appointed as the chief election commissioner or election commissioner shall not be eligible for appointment in other government services.
A writ petition was filed at the Supreme Court on Wednesday challenging re-appointment of Uprety, Gurung and Yadav.
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