Kathmandu, November 10

Dalit rights activists today lodged complaint at the Election Commission against political parties for not including Madhesis and Dalits in the proportional representation list for the upcoming provincial and parliamentary elections.

In the complaint lodged at the EC, Dalit Concern Forum and Dalit Youth Alliance claimed that some parties included names of non-Dalits in the Dalit quota while other parties included fewer Dalits in the PR list than provisioned by the Election of Member of House of Representatives Act-2017 and the Election of the Member of Provincial Assembly Act -2017. The organisations claimed that the Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal included only 10 Dalits in its PR list for parliamentary seats . As per Chapter 5 of the Election of Member of House of Representatives Act-2017, the RJP-N should have included 15 Dalits in its PR list.

Dalit rights activist Bhola Paswan said the RJP-N included four non-Dalits in Dalit quota for

parliamentary seats and did not include any Dalit’s name for provincial assembly seats. Of the total population in Province 2, 17.28 per cent are Dalits.

Paswan said the Nepali Congress and the CPN-Maoist Centre included only one Madhesi Dalit for parliamentary seat under PR quota. Article 40(7) of the constitution has guaranteed proportional representation of Dalits.

RJP-N presidium member Rajendra Mahatto said his party had not violated the election law and included Dalits in its PR list as stated in the law. “We have included Dalits for both provincial and the parliamentary seats as per the law,” claimed Mahato. He said his party was aware of the  constitutional provisions regarding proportional representation of all groups and communities.