KATHMANDU, MARCH 30
The Election Commission has issued new directives requiring candidates for civic posts to submit affidavits stating that they are not involved in commercial lease/rental, contractual business, or sale and purchase of moveable or immovable property at local levels.
Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya said the EC incorporated the provision requiring candidates to submit such affidavits mainly to ensure good governance and governance based on morality.
He said directives contained only those provisions that already existed in Local Election Rules. "The objective of this provision is to ensure that candidates vying for civic posts do not have any conflict of interest," Thapaliya added.
President of Municipal Association of Nepal Ashok Kumar Byanju said people involved in construction contracts should be restricted from vying for civic posts, as only those who were ready to volunteer for the development and welfare of their community should get a chance to represent electorate.
"If candidates are involved in other professions, they cannot do the needful for the development of electorate," Byanju said.
Former chief election commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety said barring people receiving salary or allowance from government's coffer from contesting election was justified, but barring people involved in leasing and rental contracts or construction business was not justified.
"Everybody has the right to own and operate business. How can people involved in business be barred from contesting elections?" he wondered.
Chairperson of the National Association of Rural Municipalities in Nepal Hom Narayan Shrestha said the EC might have introduced new provisions to bar people involved in contractual business as there was a hue and cry over contractors dominating electoral politics. "If this provision is seen from the standpoint of preventing contractors from dominating election politics, it may be justified. However, if it prevents those who had registered leasing or contractual businesses in their names but not doing any of those, the provision cannot be justified," he said. He added that there were many people who did not have leasing or construction contract on paper, but they were actually involved in such businesses.
A version of this article appears in the print on March 31, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
