Kathmandu, February 1

Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya today said that the Election Commission was working to make legal provisions to ensure 33 per cent of the candidates in the firstpast-the-post elections are women.

Thapaliya said the commission would put in place legal provisions to make it mandatory for every political party to field at least 33 per cent women candidates in the FPTP polls for the House of Representatives and provincial assembly elections.

He said so while speaking at a meeting of the National Concern and Coordination Committee under the National Assembly yesterday. He said a new bill related to elections was being prepared.

He said the bill being prepared by the commission will be forwarded to the Parliament after the election of the president and vice-president. Thapaliya said necessary preparations were being made to submit the election related bill to the Parliament by mid-April.

He said the provision that allows voters to cast their votes only in their constituencies was being amended and provisions were being made in the bill so as to allow security personnel, journalists, and others who are on poll duty to also vote.

He said the new bill would have a provision for mandatorily electing a woman to mayor or deputy mayor and chairperson or vice-chairperson of local levels.

In case a party fields only one candidate for the post, then she should be a woman, the CEC said about the provision in the proposed bill.

He said the bill would also have provisions to ensure that at least one-third of the candidates for ward chairpersons fielded by any party were women.

The CEC said the bill would also have a provision to give 50 per cent discount on the security deposit to the financially poor and disabled candidates.

In the November 20 polls, political parties used proportional representation system to ensure 33 per cent representation for women in the HoR and provincial assemblies. The current Cabinet has only 26 per cent women participation - only six of the 23 ministers are women.

A version of this article appears in the print on February 2, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.