KATHMANDU, April 11: Experts and opposition leaders have slammed the new constitution amendment bill for its proposal of removing chairperson and vice-chairperson of rural municipalities as well as mayor and deputy mayor of municipalities from the Electoral College to elect the National Assembly members.
Main opposition CPN-UML has said that the newly registered constitution amendment proposal is regressive and it takes the country behind 1990 situation.
The UML's Local Governance Department chief Agni Kharel said that the proposal is against the spirit of the constitution and democratic principles.
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"This proposal would curtail the rights of local units and if the proposal is endorsed the local representative would not have right even equal to what the constitution of 1990 had provided," said Kharel. The constitution of 1990 had also included representatives of local bodies in the Electoral College to elect the National Assembly members.
"This particular proposal is against the spirit of the constitution and principle of democracy. We are amazed to see how Nepali Congress, who claims to be a democratic one, and CPN (Maoist Center), who claims to be a progressive, could carry forward such a regressive and undemocratic proposal," he added.
Kharel argued that curtailing the rights of people's nearest representative, the ruling coalition is trying to curtail the rights of general people.
"People should not only question NC and Maoist Center for this regressive proposal, they should be punished in the upcoming local level elections for carrying forward this proposal," said Kharel.
Meanwhile, Local Level Restructuring Commission's Member and expert Shyam Krishna Bhurtel termed the proposal of narrowing the Electoral College as unfortunate one.
"The local representatives were included in the Electoral College to ensure that the local governments have role and representation up to the highest level of the country's positions but the proposal has ignored this fact," said Bhurtel.
He opined that the particular proposal will not benefit any political forces in future.
