Kathmandu, January 31
Small political parties submitted a memorandum to Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba on Tuesday against the bid to include provisions on threshold in the Bill related to Political Parties.
Fring parties, including CPN-ML and NWPP, met Deuba in the morning, pointing that under the proportional representation system, a candidate cannot become a lawmaker unless he secures certain per cent of votes cast. This in itself is a kind of threshold, they said.
NWPP lawmaker Prem Suwal said: The Home Ministry-sponsored Bill has no provision on threshold. But now, bids are afoot to include threshold through amendments. This is a bid to revive the partyless system.
In first and second Constituent Assembly elections, parties securing around 20,000 votes had got one lawmaker each.
Now, only those parties that secure 90,000 to one lakh votes will get a lawmaker each, the fringe parties said, pointing that there’s no need for a separate provision.
On his part, Deuba promised to discuss the issue.
