Anyone with two proposers, two seconders should be able to contest prez polls

Kathmandu, September 22

Lawmakers today registered proposals in the Parliament seeking multiple changes in bills relating to elections of upper house members and president and vice-president, including reduction of deposit money required for filing candidacy for the posts of president and vice-president.

Registering his proposal, CPN-UML lawmaker Rameshwar Phuyal said the deposit money for filing candidacy for the post of president should be reduced from Rs 100,000 to

Rs 10,000 and deposit money for filing candidacy for the post of vice-president should be reduced from Rs 75,000 to Rs 5,000.

Phuyal also proposed that the EC should have the power to announce elections for the National Assembly, the upper house of the Parliament, in consultation with the government.

Phuyal proposed that anyone with two proposers and two seconders should be able to file candidacy for posts of the president and the vice-president. The original bill proposes that one has to have 25 proposers and 25 seconders to file candidacy for posts of the president and the vice-president.

UML lawmaker Jit Bahadur (Darji) Gautam registered a proposal seeking inclusion of Dalit women among the three women members that each provinces would have to send to the National Assembly. He also proposed that a person convicted of caste discrimination offence should be barred from contesting presidential elections for at least six years after serving his/her sentence, against the two-year provision proposed in the original bill.

Nepali Congress lawmakers Nagendra Kumar Kumal and Dipak Bahadur Kuikel proposed that  members of the upper house should be elected through single transferable voting system. They also proposed that in case of a tie in presidential polls re-election should be held.

Kuikel and Kumal also proposed that the winner should be selected through lottery only if candidates secured equal number of votes even in the re-election. Kuikel said re-election was feasible, as only a few hundred voters were eligible for presidential elections. The Nepal Workers and Peasants Party lawmakers Prem Suwal, Dilli Prasad Kafle and Anuradha Thapa Magar proposed that those convicted of corruption, rape, human trafficking, drug smuggling, money laundering, misuse of passport, kidnapping, crimes of moral turpitude or homicide should be barred from contesting presidential polls.

The bill, however, has a provision that lets a person convicted of organised crime and homicide contest presidential polls six years after serving his/her sentence.

NWPP lawmakers proposed that a candidate having one proposer and one seconder should be able to contest presidential polls. NWPP lawmakers also proposed that candidates for presidential polls should be required to deposit only Rs 3,000 to contest for the post of president and Rs 2,000 to contest for the post of vice-president.

Other lawmakers who proposed amendments to the two bills include Jivan Pariyar, Gauri Kumari Oli, Kedar Prasad Sanjel, Guru Prasad Burlakoti,Anandi Panta, Shiv Kumari Nagarkoti, Pemba Lama, Ganesh Man Gurung and Ratna Devi Gurung and Rewati Raman Bhandari.