Provision requiring local reps to quit to contest polls condemned
KATHMANDU, MARCH 19
Although the Election Commission has justified its election code's requirement for incumbent local representatives to resign from their posts to contest upcoming local polls, local representatives have condemned this provision calling it unjust.
Chairperson of Municipal Association of Nepal Ashok Kumar Byanju and Chairperson of National Association of Rural Municipalities in Nepal Hom Narayan Shrestha said requiring incumbent local representatives to resign from their posts before filing their nomination papers was wrong because voters had given a mandate for running local governments for five years.
"If the EC thinks that local representatives could misuse government resources, that's wrong because there is election code of conduct and there also is the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority to take action against public officials who misuse their power," Byanju added. He said it was wrong on the part of the EC to assume that local representatives would misuse their power in two-three weeks between filing their nomination and the election date.
"The EC allows the prime minister, who has all the executive powers, to contest election without resigning form his/her post, but it requires a ward chair, who has almost no power, to resign from his/her post before contesting local polls," he said.
Chairperson of National Association of Rural Municipalities in Nepal Hom Narayan Shrestha said the EC's argument that HoR members who contested election also lost their membership was wrong because the HoR was a legislative body and local governments were executive bodies.
He said there was no clarity on whether or not municipal assemblies would be dissolved during local polls. "The prevailing laws stipulate that local governments are entities of perpetual continuity," Shrestha argued. "If the mayor of a local level resigns, who would issue recommendation letters to service seekers?" he wondered.
He said if the election code was enforced, it could lead to vacuum in local governments and service seekers might be deprived of services.
"Unlike the federal government, which can issue an ordinance to enact laws, local governments cannot issue ordinances," Shrestha said.
Election Commissioner Ishwari Paudyal, however, said that the Election Commission incorporated provision in the election code of conduct requiring the existing local representatives to resign before filing nomination papers to create a level playing field among contestants and to hold polls in a free and fair manner.
"If existing chiefs or deputy chiefs of local levels are allowed to contest polls without resigning from their posts, they could use government's resources, including vehicles, and could also launch projects to influence voters. On the other hand, an ordinary citizen who contests elections may not have all these privileges," Paudyal argued.
Paudyal said the restrictions placed on local representatives could not be compared with federal ministers. "The prime minister and ministers are not required to resign in order to contest federal elections because they have the duty to run the government and hold elections."
The federal government may change anytime within its five years tenure, but the local governments remain unchanged and when the post of a mayor falls vacant, lower representatives exercise the executive power, Paudyal said.
He said the election code of conduct enforced in the last local election did not contain the restriction that the new code contained because at that time there was no local representative.
Former chief election commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety said the provision requiring incumbent local representatives to resign from their posts to contest local polls was justified as it would create a level playing field for contestants, but there should be a provision of at least a five-member employees' body that could oversee the local executive's work in case all the local representatives of a local level resign to contest elections. "The Election Commission failed to foresee the situation of vacuum at local levels," he said.
A version of this article appears in the print on March 20, 2022, of The Himalayan Times
