Political parties now mull over three options

KATHMANDU, JUL 16 -
As the constituency delimitation issue deepens due to ‘constitutional ambiguities’, major political parties are delving on three possible options.

The first option they are mulling is to keep all the 240 constituencies unchanged, the second one is to go for fresh delimitation of all the constituencies, while the third option being deliberated is to amend the constitution to add more constituencies.

Leaders say that all the three options have their own limitations, which need to be worked out. As per the first option, leaders privy to the developments say that any change needs to be made by keeping in mind the Supreme Court verdict that said constituencies can be delineated in line with the 2011 census.

As for the second option, leaders say it would take at least three months for the fresh delineation, which could affect the Constituent Assembly elections scheduled for November 19.

On the third option, leaders say the constitution needs to be amended, while they add that this may not be possible, given the disagreement among the parties .

“Also, if we go for an amendment to the constitution, the number of constituencies will exceed 601,” a senior leader told the Post.

On Sunday, members of the Constituency Delimitation Commission (CDC) apprised the party leaders of the ‘constitutional hurdles’ in re-delineating the constituencies.

One suggestion from the commission was to add 25 more seats.

And, even the political parties appear to be at a loss when it comes to resolving the issue. While Madhes-centric parties have called for increasing the number of seats in line with the population growth, non-Madhesi parties , such as the Nepali Congress, the CPN-UML and even the UCPN (Maoist), don’t want any changes in the number of constituencies. “There was a proposal to add more constituencies, but we are not for that,” NC Vice-President Ram Chandra Paudel said on Monday.

UCPN (Maoist) Vice-Chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha admitted that constituency delimitation has become a ‘complicated process.’ “We are engaged in multi-level dialogue, including with the government, to find a way out,” he said.

Even the Chairman of the Interim Election Government, Khil Raj Regmi, has told leaders to take a call on the matter soon. “The commission cannot work with its present mandate. Therefore, take a decision on what exactly you all want to do,” a source quoted Regmi as telling leaders of the top parties on Monday.

Article 63 (3A) of the constitution calls for increasing the number of constituencies in line with the population of the Madhes and the population growth. However, Article 154 (8) prohibits reducing the number of seats below 205.

The only possible re-working can be done to the 35 constituencies that were added to the then 205 after the Madhes uprising of 2007. However, CDC members say that nothing much can be done even in these 35 constituencies as all, except Kavre, have seen the population go up in the 2011 census report.

“The 240 constituencies were set by keeping in mind the census of 2001. But with the new census report in place, adjusting the competing demands is not possible as the number of constituencies cannot exceed 240,” CDC member Dambar Chemjong said.

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