KATHMANDU, AUGUST 19

The Election Commission issued show cause notices to Province 1 and Karnali governments for preparing to disburse budget under election constituency infrastructure development programme to provincial lawmakers at the fag end of their tenure.

The poll panel ordered the two governments to pause infrastructure development programmes, stating that the disbursement of budget under the provincial election constituency infrastructure development programme could adversely impact fairness of the upcoming parliamentary and provincial elections scheduled for November 20.

The EC said the tenure of the House of Representatives and provincial assemblies would end the day candidates file their nomination papers. The EC said Province 1 and Karnali governments prepared procedure for the allocation of funds under the programme and allowed lawmakers to choose their infrastructure development projects.

The poll panel said since elections had been announced, launching any programme that could adversely impact impartiality of elections could not be deemed natural.

The EC said distribution-oriented programmes could impact fairness of elections.

The poll panel has sought explanations from the two provincial governments as to why they were considering constituency infrastructure development programmes after provincial and parliamentary elections had been announced.

'What is the guarantee that the two provincial governments' infrastructure development programmes would not adversely impact the fairness of the elections?' wondered the EC.

It also asked the two provincial governments to give reasons for allocating funds in the first quadrimester of the fiscal year. It asked the provincial governments to clarify under which laws they were carrying out the development programmes and how they would not affect fairness of elections.

A version of this article appears in the print on August 20, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.