KATHMANDU, July 28: Major political parties represented in parliament have seconded Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s proposal to hold both the provincial and federal elections simultaneously.
During his meeting with commissioners at the Election Commission (EC) on Thursday, Prime Minister Deuba, who is also the president of Nepali Congress (NC), had proposed holding both the elections simultaneously citing time constraints. Article 296 of the Constitution of Nepal, 2015 has stated that both the elections must be held by January 21, 2018.
Top leaders of the CPN-UML, CPN (Maoist Center) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) have supported the prime minister’s proposal as pragmatic saying it saves state coffers a lot of money.
Former Prime Minister and CPN-UML Chairman K P Sharma Oli said his party does not have any objections to the idea of hold both the elections simultaneously “We don’t have any objections if the two elections are held on the same day. There is no problem in counting the votes secured under the first past the post electoral system for proportional representation purposes as well,” said Oli.
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Talking to journalists upon his arrival from a week-long visit to Tibet at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu on Friday, Chairman Oli said political parties must not put the country in jeopardy just because they have their partisan differences. “We must hold both the federal and provincial elections by January, 2018. We must at least hold the federal elections within the constitutional deadline,” he said, while indicating that the fast-approaching constitutional deadline could make it difficult to hold both the provincial and federal elections if they are held separately.
Another UML leader Pradeep Gyawali said holding both the elections simultaneously will save both time and a lot of money. “We support the proposal as the constitutional deadline is fast approaching,” he said.
While referring to the plan of the then UML-led government to hold local elections in November 2016, provincial elections in April 2017 and Federal Election in November 2017, Gyawali alleged that successive governments led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Sher Bahadur Deuba were not serious about the constitutional deadline for the elections. “We may need to do some homework on ballot paper design. But I don’t think there would be any technical problem any technical problems in holding both the polls together,” he further said.
Ruling CPN (Maoist Center) is also positive about Deuba’s proposal. “Maoist Center has already been lobbying for holding both the polls simultaneously. We may, however, need to hold discussion whether to have same ballot paper or different ones for FPTP and proportional representation system,” said senior Maoist Center leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha.
While stating that the Maoist Center has reservations over about having same ballot paper for both PR and FPTP elections, Shrestha said the idea of holding both the provincial and federal elections simultaneously is best both due to time and cost considerations. “It is not about just the EC’s cost of holding the elections. We should also take into account the cost each political party, individual candidate spend for the elections,” Shrestha further told Republica.
However, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) leaders said they have yet to discuss the issue in the party. “Although we have not made any official position on the issue, we think this could be a ploy to avoid the elections altogether. Ruling Nepali Congress appears not in favor of bringing the agitating Madhes-based parties on board the election process,” said RPP spokesperson Sushil Kumar Shrestha.
Although all major political parties appear positive about holding both the polls simultaneously, EC office bearers have proposed holding elections separately saying there is still enough time. They have maintained that holding both the elections simultaneously is complex and challenging in terms of managing the logistics.
Political leaders have dismissed the arguments of EC office bearers. The parties said holding both the elections at the same time will also provide enough time for voter education, which will reduce invalid votes.
