Kathmandu, August 5

The Constituency Delineation Commission is mulling over the possibility of giving 90 per cent weightage to population and 10 per cent weightage to geography while delineating electoral districts.

Article 286(5) of the constitution states that the CDC would delineate constituencies, taking population as the primary basis and geography as the secondary basis.

A source at the CDC said office bearers were mulling over giving 90 per cent weightage to population and 10 per cent to geography. The CDC is currently studying inter-district migration as well as intra-district migration trends, the source said.

The CDC is also looking at the models on the basis of which 205 constituencies were delineated in   1991.

A member of CDC told THT that reducing the first-past-the-post constituencies  from  240  to 165 was a  big challenge. The changes in distribution of population and the reduction in the number of constituencies from 240 to 165 could result in reduction of electoral districts in almost all districts.

“The number of constituencies can be decreased in  populous districts like Kathmandu and Morang  if the population growth remains relatively low,” the source added.

The CDC  formed by the Cabinet on July 20 under former justice of the Supreme Court Kamal Narayan Das has been given 21 days to submit its final report.

The source also said that the CDC would only state in its report as to how many electoral districts would be formed in each of the  seven provinces. The source also said that it would not state how many electoral districts would be formed the each district.

Most of the political parties, with whom CDC had consulted recently,  suggested to the CDC to carry out its work keeping in mind that there are 77  districts and not 75 as parts of Nawalparasi and Rukum districts were divided.

According to the CDC source, both parts — area west of Daunne  and  area east of Daunne of Nawalparasi district — had almost  equal population and it was highly likely that both areas would have at least one constituency.