INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
KATHMANDU, JUNE 10Former prime minister and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba broached the idea of changing
the electoral system so that members of the House of Representatives could be elected through first-past-the-post system and members of the
National Assembly through Proportional Representation system.
SAWDF calls on prime minister
Newly-appointed Deputy Prime Minister and ministers sworn in
At present 40 per cent members of the HoR are elected under PR and 56 out of 59 members of the
NA are elected by electoral college comprising HoR members and province assembly members
They are elected through single transferable vote system.Addressing a party cadres' meet here today, Deuba said it would be better if
members of the HoR were elected through FPTP system and NA members through PR system, but for that the constitution should be amended and
that could happen only when other political parties agreed.
Central Committee member of CPN-MC Shivram Yadav said his party
favoured a fully proportional election system
"FPTP system can ensure election of majority members of ethnic groups who have enough money to spend during election and hence we cannot
support this system," Yadav said and added that deprived communities and minorities could not win FPTP election.There are more than 100
countries that use either PR or a mixed election system across the world
Less than 50 use FPTP system.Professor Kapil Shrestha said Deuba might have broached the idea of a PR-less HoR to avoid the situation of
hung parliament."Under the current political system, no one party can win majority in the Lower House of the Parliament
So the 40 per cent ratio can be brought down to 25 per cent," he said and added that if the ratio of PR percentage was reduced in the HoR,
proportional representation of marginalised communities should be ensured in the NA, or else the Khas Arya community which dominates all
organs of state will again have higher percentage of representation in the NA as well.Shrestha said Deuba and top leaders of other political
parties had defamed the PR system as they picked their relatives and favourites as PR nominees, rather than giving chance to the most
deserving people.Spokesperson for Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal Manish Kumar Suman said that his party favoured fully proportional election
system to address the current woes afflicting the country's political system.People of marginalised communities and minorities cannot
contest FPTP elections because candidates run very expensive election campaign, Suman said and added that only dominant communities and
moneyed candidates could win in the FPTP system.Nepal adopted the mixed election system after the 2006 popular movement as proportional
inclusion and empowerment of marginalised communities were the main agenda of the CPN-MC, and Madhesi and Janajati forces had strongly
raised these issues.A version of this article appears in the print on June 11, 2023, of The Himalayan Times
This article first appeared/also appeared in https://thehimalayantimes.com
