Kathmandu, April 1

The government today decided to table the bill to amend the Local Body Election Procedure Act in the Parliament after the concerned Cabinet committee’s approval.

Minister for Information, Communication and Technology Sherdhan Rai said today’s Cabinet meeting had decided to submit the bill formulated to amend Local Body (Election Work Procedure) Act, 1992, to the concerned committee of the Cabinet to table it in the Legislature-Parliament.

The bill would be discussed in the Legislature-Parliament after the government tables it.

According to a source at the Election Commission, the bill has incorporated the option of ‘right to reject’ as directed by the Supreme Court in its original draft.

The EC has also included a provision

to ensure 50 per cent women’s representation from all the parties while fielding candidates in the local bodies and one of the two top positions — mayor or deputy mayor — for a woman. If this provision is included in the Act, Nepal will see the highest representation of the women in the local bodies.

The EC had drafted the bill with a provision of barring those involved in heinous crimes — murder, human trafficking, rape or drug trafficking — from contesting election for any position of the local body, besides the provision to bar those committing the offences regarding the election from contesting the election for two years.

Former Election Commissioner Dolakh Bahadur Gurung said amendment was essential to make the local bodies inclusive as per the provisions of the new constitution.

He said the Local Self-Governance Act should also be amended to match the provisions of the Local Body Election Procedure Act.

Gurung said the EC should first frame the necessary laws before the government declared the election and he had recently advised the EC to get the Act amended soon for the purpose. He said the vacant positions in the EC should be filled before the government declared the date of election.