KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 4
The House of Representatives witnessed a heated debate today with opposition parties opposing the government's move to extend the HoR's tenure till the first meeting of the House after parliamentary elections.
They were taking part in the theoretical debate on the Bill to Amend Some Nepal Acts where the government proposed that the five-year tenure of HoR members should end on the day the new House holds its first meeting after elections.
Speaking from the rostrum of the HoR, CPN-UML lawmaker Gokul Prasad Baskota said treating the day candidates filed nomination papers for parliamentary and provincial elections or the day before parliamentary and provincial elections were held as the end of the five-year term made more sense than extending the HoR tenure till the first meeting of the HoR after polls. Parliamentary and provincial polls are scheduled for November 20.
Another UML lawmaker, Sher Bahadur Tamang, said, "HoR members' tenure should end the day candidates file nomination papers for parliamentary elections."
Rastriya Prajatantra Party lawmaker Rajendra Lingden not only protested the bill's provisions, but said he would neither take part in the HoR nor accept pay or perks till the new HoR was formed. He said HoR members' term should end the day the date for parliamentary election was announced. He said he was expecting that a new and neutral government to be formed to ensure that elections were held in a free, fair, and independent manner.
However, what Lingden said didn't hold water with ruling alliance lawmakers. Nepali Congress lawmaker Min Bahadur Bishwakarma said the constitution envisaged the HoR as a continuous body which should function for five years. "Seeking to end the HoR tenure in case the House is dissolved and midterm polls are announced may be deemed appropriate, but when parliamentary polls are taking place after five years, the HoR should be able to work for a full five-year term," he argued.
He said the National Assembly had already set a precedent by counting the NA members' tenure from the date they took the oath of office. The same should apply to HoR members as well, he added.
Responding to lawmakers' remarks in the HoR, Minister of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs Govinda Bandi said the House of Representatives Members' Salary and Allowance Act stated that the tenure of HoR members would be counted from the day they were elected, but in practice they were provided with salary and allowance from the first meeting of the HoR. This has led to ambiguity about the tenure of HoR members, he added.
"I admit that the government should have brought this bill (the Bill to Amend Some Nepal Acts) earlier, but its requirement cannot be dismissed just because the government brought it a bit late," Bandi said.
"Since the HoR is a continuous institution, it will be prudent to determine the end of five-year term the day the first meeting of the HoR is held after the parliamentary elections," he added.
Bandi said everywhere, including in the USA and India, the term of elected representatives ended only after new representatives were elected.
"In the USA, there is a president-elect and the president. On some occasions, they walk together after the presidential election," Bandi said.
Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya told THT that the date suggested by the government in the bill was not consistent with the spirit of the constitution. Articles 91 and 182 of the constitution stipulate that the tenure of the HoR speaker and Provincial Assembly speaker ends a day before nomination papers are filed for the parliamentary and provincial elections.
"If the speaker has his/her tenure only till the day nomination papers are filed, how can other HoR members argue that they should have their tenure beyond that?" he wondered.
A version of this article appears in the print on September 5, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
