Final decision on constituency delimitation commission tomorrow

BHISMARAJ OJHA, KATHMANDU, July 19: The government has said the formation of ‘Election Constituency Delimitation Commission’ meant for determining election constituencies for the purpose of election to the members of the Federal Parliament and members of the State Assemblies has reached the final phase.

There is the constitutional compulsion before the government to hold the entire three-tier election before January 21, 2018 and bearing this in mind, the government has started preparations for forming the Commission without taking a long time.

According to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Krishna Bahadur Mahara, an upcoming meeting of the Council of Ministers would perhaps finalize the matter relating to the formation of Commission.

The Article 286 of the Nepal’s Constitution is about the formation of the Commission which shall have a retired judge of the Supreme Court as the chairperson and one geographer, one sociologist or demographer, one administrator or a legal expert as members and a special class gazetted officer from the Government of Nepal as member secretary.

Discussions about the formation of Commission are taking place at various political levels. The government is to talk with the main opposition about this matter.
Nepali congress leader Bimalendra Nidhi said the party has already met with CPN (Maoist Centre) Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ to discuss extensively regarding the formation of Commission.

A Cabinet meeting scheduled to take place tomorrow would probably form the Commission, he said, quoting Prime Minister and party President Sher Bahadur Deuba .

While determining the constituencies for the representation, the constituencies in the provinces shall be determined by the Commission considering the population the first base and the geography the second pursuant to the Federal law and every district inside the province shall have at least one constituency.

Attention should be paid towards density of population, geographical categorization, administrative and transport facilities and communal and cultural side in course of determining electoral constituencies as per the constitution.

The Commission would submit a report of its work execution to the government. There is a constitutional provision that such determined electoral constituencies should be reviewed in every 20 years.

Office-bearers of the EC met Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba some days back and suggested him to determine electoral constituencies through the Commission before the election of province assembly and House of Representatives.

The EC said that it would be appropriate to hold the election of province assembly within third week of October, national assembly within last week of October and House of Representatives within third week of November.

EC Spokesperson Surya Prasad Sharma said that the report of the Electoral Constituencies Delimitation Commission and other laws would be necessary within July 30 before announcing the date for the election.

Article 84 of the constitution has the provision related to formation of House of Representatives. There will be 275 members in the House of Representatives. One hundred and sixty five members will be elected under the first-past-the-post electoral system and 110 under the proportional electoral system in the House of Representatives.

Similarly, the constitution has also the provision of 59-member National Assembly. Now, there are 240 electoral constituencies and the provision of 601-member Legislature-Parliament including 335 members elected under proportional system and 26 cabinet-nominees. RSS