EC, in the ordinance on amending the Election to Members of the Constituent Assembly Act, 2013, has proposed that a political party must secure one percent of the total valid votes cast in the election to be eligible for seats under the proportional electoral system.[break]
Similarly, the constitutional body has also proposed that persons convicted of criminal offenses or moral turpitude be barred from filing candidacy and be allowed to contest election only six years after completing their sentences handed down by courts or other judicial authority.
According to EC proposal, 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, jailbreak or abetting jail break, 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 the sentence handed down by a court or any other judicial authority.
Though the government has already approved the ordinance on amending election related acts and ordinance on amending Election Commission Act, 2013, it has failed to approve the ordinance on amending the Election to Members of the Constituent Assembly Act, 2013 as the political parties are sharply divided over the provisions related to eligibility threshold for proportional seats and candidates´ criminal background.
“The ordinance on amending the Election to Members of the Constituent Assembly Act, 2013 is a fundamental document,” said Election Commissioner Ayodhi Prasad Yadav, adding, “The EC cannot formulate regulations related to security, candidates and political parties until the ordinance is approved.”
He maintained that EC can start full-fledged preparations for new polls only after the ordinance on amending the Election to Members of the Constituent Assembly Act, 2013 gets approved.
Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML have stood with the EC´s proposal while UCPN (Maoist) and other fringe political parties have rejected the proposed threshold, saying it would end the existence of fringe parties.
The UCPN (Maoist) has also rejected the EC proposal related to candidates´ criminal background arguing that it is irrelevant as the country has just emerged from conflict.
President Ram Baran Yadav on Thursday had approved the election related ordinances after the government forwarded the ordinances to him on Tuesday.
According to EC officials, integrated mobile service teams of EC and the home ministry will be deployed within this week. The teams will distribute citizenship certificates and update electoral rolls, simultaneously.
EC had forwarded three ordinances, ordinance on amending Election to the Members of Constituent Assembly Act, 2013, ordinance on amending Electoral Rolls Act, 2013 and ordinance on amending Election Commission Act, 2013 to the government.
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