Bills On Federal And Provincial Elections Passed
Bills On Federal And Provincial Elections Passed
KTM Reporter
September 5, 2017
Kathmandu: By the majority votes yesterday, the legislature-parliament passed the Bills On Federal And Provincial Elections Home Minister Janardan Sharma had put to a vote. These bills become laws after the president signs them off, and pave the way for the Election Commission to work hard to hold federal and provincial elections simultaneously in two phases on November 26, and December 7, 2017
Political parties participating in the federal election have to secure at least three percent votes to get their candidates elected through the proportional election and get the status of the national political parties. Existence of political parties securing less than three percent votes would cease to be nationally. The same provision is applicable to the provincial proportional election but the threshold is 1.5 percent only.
People indicted for corruption, rape, human trafficking, selling and distributing narcotic drugs, money laundering, misuse of passports, kidnapping, and other crimes punished for 20-and-more-year jail terms are barred from being the candidates.
State staffers and any persons drawing salaries from the State treasury are not eligible for being the candidates.
Anybody convicted for the election felony would not be eligible for being candidates for two years after completing the sentence. People indicated for caste and untouchable prejudice, for witchcraft, and multi-marriage would not be eligible for three yeas after completing the sentence. Criminals receiving less than 20-year imprisonment would not be eligible for six years after completing the sentence, the news in “gorkhapatra” of today stated.
The bills have been delayed to pass in the parliament, as NC lawmaker Ananda Dhungana introduced an amendment to the bills for making the politicians indicted for corruption eligible for being candidates after completing the sentence. It has made clear that lawmaker Dhungana has either ignored or unaware of the provision made in the constitution barring any persons indicated for corruption would be barred from being candidates.