Prime Minister’s second address within a week at midnight on February 7 promising to meet the demands of the Madhesi Janadhikara Forum (MJF) has led it to call off its bandh and transport strikes for 10 days in the first phase of the people’s uprising.

The Prime Minister has assured that after amending the Interim Constitution electoral constituencies would be delimited on the basis of population distribution and the country’s geographical “feature” and “expediency”. The division of seats will be based on 49/51 per cent between Madhes and hilly regions. Constituencies would be increased in the Madhes region on the basis of the percentage of population growth and an equal number of seats would be increased for proportional representation. Representation of Madhesis, Dalits, indigenous nationalities, women and backward communities in the administration would also be ensured through the federal system of governance in the new constitution.

The first phase of the agitation has taken more than two dozen lives, caused property damage worth millions and left deep scars on the minds of the people as they could not evaluate the nature of the uprising. Regrettably, taking it as a law and order problem, the government used excessive force to quell it. It was the Maoists who first started behaving arrogantly by defying the MJF bandh call and killing a 16-year-old boy. They had forgotten the reality of the changed political scenario after signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord and

the UN management of their arms and ammunition. They resorted to old coercive technique of controlling people by overlooking the strength of the mass uprising of last April.

The second phase of the agitation may start with the delayed implementation of the assurance given by the PM as the eight-party alliance appears to be putting in a half-hearted attempt to diagnose the present political ailment. No doubt, the problem of seat allotment in the Terai has persisted since the 1990 constitution accepted the arbitrary division of the country into 75 districts in 1962 and incorporating a criterion for delimiting electoral constituencies and fixing the number of seats for the House of Representatives. It is an open secret that the distractive division was meant for perpetuating the domination of one community over many others. For this reason, many eminent scholars, like late Dr. Harka Gurung, had suggested state reorganisation by reducing the number of districts to one-third of the current number. This issue has engaged the attention of scholars but failed to draw the state’s attention.

Secondly, the eight-party alliance appears obscure on the issue of the electoral system to be adopted for the Constituent Assembly polls. The issue has been further confused by the prime minister’s assurance to increase the number of seats under both components — the district constituencies under FPtP and the List Proportional Representation. It is a fact

that Mixed System may not give proportional results and can hardly guarantee the inclusiveness that the indigenous communities, Dalits, women and Madhesis are fighting for.

Insisting on 205 seats under the FPtP system shows the lack of confidence among political parties of getting elected under LPR system. Their political dominance will be secured if the job of the Constituent Assembly is to be confined to constitution-making and the tenure of Interim Legislature is extended till the CA approves a new constitution. Significantly, the FPtP loses its merits when it is used as a component in Mixed Electoral system. Since two ballots have to be used for each component, the illiterate voters may be confused about stamping for separate candidate and party of their choice. It is not too late to consider the Regional List Proportional System as the only electoral system for election on the basis of loose division of the country into 20/22 regions, clubbing two to three districts together on the basis of language, ethnicity and communication facilities, thereby providing efficient administrative machinery to conduct the CA elections.

If each seat is to represent one lakh voters, the number of seats in the Terai will increase by 23 seats, around half a dozen in the hilly region, including four in Kathmandu and one each in Kavre, Chitwan and Dang. The total number of seats will be 233 in place of 409 fixed in the Interim Constitution. Even if 50/60 seats are reserved for eminent constitutional experts, civil society organisations, professional organisations, the disabled and a few seats for those communities which cannot be elected on the strength of their population, the total number of Constituent Assembly seats will be well within the limit of 295 and it will be a more descriptive and lively House to frame a democratic constitution.

Prof. Mishra is ex-election commissioner