Election threshold
The Election Commission has now made two vital proposals to the government, one
concerning the threshold to qualify as a national party and the other concerning the threshold for minimum number of votes for election into the parliament. The commission has proposed that only the political parties with two or more seats in parliament be designated as national parties, a designation which entitles them to various perks from the government. The other suggestion is that only the political parties that secure at least 1.5 percent of the votes be represented in the parliament. If the government heeds this suggestion, the number of political parties represented in national parliament would be drastically reduced after the next election. For instance, in place of the 30 political parties in parliament right now there would have been only nine had the 1.5 percent threshold been applied for the second Constituent Assembly elections in 2013. This would have meant that the kind of dirty horse-trading we now get to witness in the process of government formation, with political parties with just single seats in parliament
often playing kingmakers, would be drastically reduced. It will also make parliament proceedings more orderly and result in considerable savings for the national exchequer.
The small parties argue that it is somehow undemocratic to deny them representation even if they secure tens of thousands of votes. They overstate their case. The cause of democracy in Nepal has been greatly harmed by the dirty politicking of these small parties. It is not right that these tiny parties get to make and unmake governments, with repeated ructions in national polity. Nor is there much to their argument that the state cannot block minority views. This line of argument would be more credible if these smaller parties actually offered compelling alternatives to the agendas of the bigger parties. But most of these smaller outfits have been formed because a big party leader decided to storm out after being denied an electoral ticket, or decided to cross the parliament floor to vote for the opposite camp falling for various inducements, in both cash and kind. This is not to suggest that all small parties are rotten eggs. There are for instance a few
left-wing parties that have held fast to their principles even when it would have been
convenient to abandon them.
But in a democracy it is only right that the political parties that most citizens back should also get to set the national agenda. Moreover, it is clear from our nearly three-decade-long democratic experience following the 1990 political changes that sustainable growth and development are impossible in a perennially unstable polity. And one of the best ways to guarantee political stability is to impose a cap on minimum votes required for representation. Having fewer political parties in parliament will also free up more state resources for use in infrastructure and development. Even though the Election Commission had proposed 1.5 percent threshold for the second CA elections in 2013, the unelected government of Khil Raj Regmi decided to ignore this sensible suggestion. The major parties should not make the same mistake.
Plastic thinking
