Nepal parliament endorses electoral laws barring accused, corrupt to contest elections

By Binod Prasad Adhikari

Kathmandu [Nepal], Sept 5 (ANI): The Nepal Parliament has endorsed electoral laws for upcoming election of the federal and provincial council, which bars people indulged in corruption and criminal offences to stand as candidate.

The bill was endorsed by holding three rounds of meeting.

Lawmakers of the ruling Nepali Congress have demanded for flexibility over the provision.

However, they allowed the bill to be presented in the parliament at the last minute.

Nepal's Home Affairs Minister Janardan Sharma, while presenting the bill concerning elections in province and federal council, briefed the parliament over the raised questions about the provisions of threshold and other matters.

"The provisions included in this bill are also mentioned in the previously passed bills by this parliament. The concerns over the threshold and other provisions does not tend to bar the political parties but to manage and help the functioning of the parliament and to improve the participation and representation," Sharma said.

The newly endorsed bill bars a person, accused of corruption, rape/extortion, human trafficking, drugs trafficking, and property purification, misusing passport, kidnapping or moral turpitude or any other kind of criminal offence, from contesting election. None of the candidates, who faced punishment over aforementioned offences and one spent more than 20 years of imprisonment over various issues, are said to be illegible to stand as candidate in the election.

The new bill has also fixed the threshold for the parties to win the seat. A candidate, who fights for proportional seat in the House of Representative, should acquire at least three percent of the casted vote to acquire a seat in Provincial Assembly.

But the new electoral law ruled out the provision of No Vote or vote to reject, breaching the ruling by Supreme Court.

Nepal is set to hold the two rounds of provincial and federal election in November and December this year, which is a new test for Nepal as well as a way towards the implementation of new constitution promulgated in 2015. (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI