KATHMANDU, Aug 11: The Election Commission has proposed a provision making it mandatory to elect at least one-third women representatives to the House of Representatives as well as the provincial assemblies.
Presenting draft bills on the election of parliamentary and provincial assembly members, the commission has proposed that a political party must elect women candidates under the proportional electoral system to ensure one-third representation of women in the House as well as in the provincial assemblies if one-third women representatives are not possible under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system.
Women's representation not durable without mandatory legislatio...
"Unless one-third representation of women is ensured as per the priority for women candidates under the PR system, candidates listed under other categories will also not be elected," state both the draft bills.
The proposed provisions make it mandatory for all the political parties to prepare their lists of candidates in such a way as to ensure one-third representation of women not only as candidates for the House and the provincial assemblies but also in the election results.
Likewise, the commission has proposed another provision that makes it mandatory for all political parties to include at least one person with disabilities out of every 50 candidates while submitting the closed lists for PR candidates for the House of Representatives and provincial assembly.
The EC has likewise proposed a minimum 1.5 percent threshold for political parties for winning seats in provincial assemblies under the PR system, as it has already proposed the same threshold for the House of Representatives.
While the representatives of big parties suggested to the EC, during an interaction held by the EC in the capital Wednesday, to increase the threshold for provincial assembly elections, representatives of smaller and fringe parties argued that there should not be any threshold for provincial assembly elections.
Likewise, the EC has also proposed a provision to bar candidates from contesting more than one provincial assembly constituency under FPTP, just as it has proposed the same thing for elections to the House of Representatives.
