All major English and Nepali newspapers published from Kathmandu today have given the top priority to the Election Commission’s decision to print separate ballot papers for first-past-the-post elections for provincial assemblies and federal House of Representatives. Likewise, some newspapers have published analytical reports on which parties or alliances can win the elections in different constituencies of the country.
Political parties contesting proportional representation elections have submitted final list of PR candidates to the Commission yesterday. Newspapers have highlighted this issue as well.
Important
Parties submit corrected closed lists
According to Gorkhapatra, political parties which are contesting for seats in federal House of Representatives and seven provincial assemblies have submitted final closed list of their proportional representation candidates on Sunday. Big parties including Nepali Congress and CPN-UML had filed the corrected closed list by the late night yesterday.
Kantipur reports that the Congress’ list includes 60 per cent leaders from the faction closed to party President Sher Bahadur Deuba whereas around 40 per cent leaders belong to the camp led by senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel. Some leaders close to Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar have also been included.
Likewise, the UML and the Maoist Centre’s close lists have included around 60 per cent women, the report informs.
According to Nagarik, the Rastriya Janata Party Nepal removed the name of its top leader Mahantha Thakur from the list after he expressed his desire to contest in the first-past-the-post elections. Earlier, his name was on the top of the closed list. Meanwhile, some leaders of the party have proposed that Thakur contest for the provincial assembly in Province 2 and later run for the chief minister of the Province. Thakur, however, is yet to respond to the proposal concretely.
Lawmakers barred from operating development fund
The Election Commission on Sunday directed concerned government agencies to stop implementation of the programmes under the Lawmaker’s Development Fund and Constituency Development Programme, according to Naya Patrika.
The programmes would let each member of the recently dissolved Parliament to spend upto Rs 10 billion to build infrastructures in their constituencies. The report says the Commission decided to bar the implementation as it could affect voters’ decision in the run-up to provincial and federal parliamentary elections; hence violate the code of conduct.
The Commission has also argued that spending such big amounts in the name of lawmakers whose term has already expired would be meaningless, reports Rajdhani.
Meanwhile, the Commission has also directed chief district officers to submit their reports by Monday on monitoring of these programmes, according to Republica.
Ignored
Petroleum suppliers announce protest against Khadka
Petroleum product suppliers on Sunday have announced a protest programme against chief of Nepal Oil Corporation, Gopal Bahadur Khadka, according to Nagarik,
The Nepal Petroleum Dealers Association has warned that it would halt transporting fuel if Khadka does not withdraw the decision to issue permits to new petroleum transporters, claiming the decision was irrational and illegal.
The organisation submitted its memorandum with the warning of strike from Wednesday to the Ministry of Supplies and the Corporation yesterday.
The organisation has argued that the Corporation should have published a public notice calling for applications from tankers before issuing permits.
Madhesh-centric parties struggle to ‘save’ candidates
Two major Madhesh-centric parties—Rastriya Janata Party Nepal and Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal—are struggling hard to save their leaders and cadres from joining other forces as they are finalising the list of candidates for upcoming polls, reports Nepal Samacharpatra.
The report claims that the leftist alliance comprising CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre is eyeing disgruntled leaders of the RJPN and FSF-N as they have comparative weaker presence in Province 2. This is why the parties are yet to reveal names of their candidates in the Province. Knowing this strategy, the Madhesh-centric parties are also delaying revealing the names, the report quotes RJPN leader Sarvendra Nath Shukla.
Interesting
Nepal to launch academic mountaineering course, first of its kind in the globe
Abhiyan anchor story for the day informs that Nepal is launching an academic programme on mountaineering which will be the first of its kind in the world as only short-term training programmes were available for the skill till the date.
Nepal Mountain Academy, an institution affiliated to the Tribhuvan University, will begin running the Bachelor’s in Mountaineering Study (BMS) course within next two weeks. The institute’s Executive Director Krishna Kumar Niraula informs the paper that students who passed an entrance test two months ago are being interviewed for the admission currently.
The eight-semester course costs around Rs 600,000.
