Kathmandu, September 15

Chair of Rastriya Ekata Munch Bijendralal Joshi today filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court seeking repeal of vote threshold provisions in newly enacted laws relating to the election of Lower House members and members of the provincial assemblies.

The newly passed bill relating to the election of Lower House members set a vote threshold of three per cent under the proportional representation electoral system while the bill relating to the election of provincial assembly members sets 1.5 per cent vote threshold.

The writ petitioner has argued that the provision of vote threshold is against constitutional provisions.

The constitution has guaranteed citizen’s right to open political parties as a fundamental right and Article 270 of the constitution has also stipulated that no laws can be made to restrict a political party, the petitioner adds.

The petitioner argued that the threshold provisions of the newly enacted laws relating to the election of the Lower House members and provincial assembly members violated constitutional provisions as they restricted proportional representation of indigenous nationalities, various ethnic groups, class and gender.

The first hearing of the case has been scheduled for October 6.

The petitioner has named the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers and others as defendants.