KATHMANDU, Nov 2: The Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the way for holding the upcoming parliamentary and provincial elections scheduled for November 26 and December 7.

Stating that the country is all set for the great mission of elections, a single bench of Justice Ananda Mohan Bhattarai underlined that it would be against democracy to create obstacles in the way of elections by raising petty legal and practical issues. The bench also refused to issue a stay order as demanded by the petitioners to print separate ballot papers for proportional representation electoral system for the House of Representatives and the provincial assemblies. 

The bench said, “The political parties have shown interest to participate in the elections but they did not submit the closed lists in the given time that may lead to the necessity of printing ballots with some more electoral symbols. But this does not mean to violate the rights of the voters.”

The apex court was responding to two separate writ petitions filed by advocates Sunil Kumar Patel and Sitaram Agrawal seeking an SC order to the government and the Election Commission (EC) to print separate ballot papers for the proportional representation systems as well. 

Stating that the voters shouldn't be made to cast their votes on the same ballot paper under the proportional representation electoral system for the House of Representatives and the Provincial Assembly, the writ petitioners had sought the apex court order to print separate ballot papers for the indirect elections as well. The EC has already secured separate ballot papers for the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) elections as per the apex court orders issued on October 18 and October 25. 

The bench also interpreted Section 35(2) of the Member of House of Representatives Election Act, 2017 and Member of Provincial Assembly Election Act, 2017 and underlined that the apex court did not issue any stay order in response to the writ petition filed by Rastriya Janta Party-Nepal leader Sarvendra Nath Shukla in relation to the indirect elections.  Stating that the EC has submitted the details of already printed ballot papers for the proportional representation system, the bench said it would be unfeasible to intervene in the indirect elections. 

Meanwhile, the bench has summoned the authorities - Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers and the Election Commission - to attend the apex court on November 5 to discuss whether to issue a stay order to secure the rights of the civil servants to be deployed for holding the elections to cast their votes. Seeking its order to ensure their rights, Government Deputy Attorney Bharat Kumar Mainali had filed a separate petition a few days ago.

 
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