Call For Debating Electoral Reforms

Election Commission Nepal (ECN) has consolidated the assortment of scattered legal provisions    relating to election into a full-fledged draft incorporating options and provisions for electoral process reform. The commission had made several round of consultations with relevant actors and stakeholders to produce the draft. The draft bill prepared on behalf of the Commission had been presented to the government to push for legislative enactment almost a year ago. However, the draft bill has not been opened for consideration and it seems that it has been shelved for now. 

Since the ECN prepared bill contained provisions having conduct, norms and options for political party for ensuring accountability and transparency, the government should have presumably chosen to buy time before bringing into discussion. As ECN has stepped up its efforts to keep tab on the parties and their conduct for electoral integrity, political parties seem to be wary of such initiatives. A liberal school of thought contends that political parties cannot be subjected to stricter surveillance and control since they are organised to articulate the voices and aspiration of the citizens. 

The provision relating to party was incorporated in the constitution to protect the inviolability of political parties at the backdrop of the ban imposed on parties by authoritarian non-party Panchayat government. The political parties like Nepali Congress and CPN-UML wanted to ensure that the constitution guarantees the existence and inalienability of the political parties in the new political dispensation as the key vehicle of democratisation and democratic development in the country. The party leaders were also keen to keep that the plural democratic order go ahead unhindered free from any capricious interferences.  The authors of the multiparty constitution formulated after 1990 were in fact inclined to borrow from the European tradition of recognising and regulating political parties in the constitution. 

Exclusive example

In fact, the constitution of Nepal promulgated in 1990 offered the country the lone and exclusive example among the South Asian countries where political parties have been constitutionally embodied. It is worth to note the fact that even the constitution of the Union of India does not have a separate chapter relating to political parties even though that country has a rather long history of political parties and democratisation. Though the constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990 based on unitary state structure was replaced by the federal democratic constitution authored by constituent assembly in 2015, some provisions related with political parties have been subscribed from its predecessor document with an added importance and scope in this basic law of the land. 

According to the federal constitution of Nepal 2015, political parties need to be incorporated as a legal entity and registered with the ECN which is designated legally as the regulating authority for the political groups and organisations. The constitution requires the political parties to imbibe into the democratic values and norms. The party office bearers for different tiers and levels need to renew their mandates every five years through democratic elections subject to the provisions in their respective statutes.

Pursuant to the constitutional provision, a separate law relating to political parties, has been formulated in 2017 that spells out registration process, standards, functions, scope and party functionary recruitment, and several other  aspects of the political party regulatory governance. Though the Election Commission has been often criticised for its subdued and less than satisfactory performance especially in enforcing rules and regulation, it has become active to assert its role as the enforcer of the political party regulatory regime 

Furthermore, the Election Commission has sprung into action to enforce the provision in the law relating to political parties that prohibits recruitment of the school and university teachers, civil servants, among others, as the office bearers of the political parties. Not very long back, the commission served the notice to the political parties to refrain from recruiting the government remunerated employees into the formal party structure to uphold the provisions envisaged in the law relating to political party. Needless to say, a large numbers of government remunerated employees including the school and university teachers are reportedly recruited into the ranks and files of political parties that has politicised the orientation of public institutions in the country. This has to be stopped to ensure impartiality and rationality of the academic and bureaucratic institutions that feed on the public exchequer.          

 Constructive deliberation

As discussed above, political party laws have their significance in promoting and regulating the political parties especially requiring and sanctioning them to organise and act democratically. The law fulfills such critical functions as defining the criteria for recognition of a political party, regulating party activities, prescribing norms for party organisation, setting sanctions against parties if they fail in upholding the norms and so on. In Nepal, we have rightly formulated political party law according to the democratic intents of the constitution. However, it is high time we made the Election Commission effective enough to enforce the regulatory regime enacted for the political parties rising above partisan interests.

Moreover, the government should initiate the discussion and deliberation on the consolidated draft bill submitted on behalf of the ECN to ensure that electoral regime was further democratised and reformed. In this context, mention must be made of the issues raised by the political actors and stakeholders on the need to reform the electoral system as well. Election Commission, political parties, parliamentary committees and civil society stakeholders should engage in constructive deliberation to reform the existing electoral system (PranalI) which is blamed for recurring political instability in the country.

(Rijal, PhD, contributes regularly to TRN and writes on contemporary political, economic and governance issues. rijalmukti@gmail.com)