 |
 
|
 |
|
|
Public Polling
We will be coming soon...
TEXT SIZE: 
Frequently Asked Questions
Following the publication of the results of the Constituent Assembly Election by the Election Commission, the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly takes place within 21 days as summoned by the Prime Minister. The subsequent meetings take place on the date and time as fixed by the person who chairs the Constituent Assembly. Similarly, if a minimum of a quarter of members of the Constituent Assembly write to the chair explaining the reason for holding a meeting of the Constituent Assembly, the chair is required by law to call a meeting of the Constituent Assembly within 15 days. The working tenure of the Constituent Assembly is two years from the date it holds its first meeting, however if a state of emergency is declared in the country and the task of creating the Constitution could not be completed the Constituent Assembly may extend its tenure up to six months. • The draft bill tabled before the Constituent Assembly, from the preamble to each Article, shall be voted and formally adopted. • For the constitutional bill to be passed, a minimum of two thirds of the effective members of the Constituent Assembly must be present and adopt the bill unanimously. • If such unanimity cannot be reached regarding the preamble or any other Articles of the constitutional bill, the parliamentary leaders of political parties represented in the Constituent Assembly shall hold consultations among themselves to reach a consensus on the issue. • After the consultation is over, the Preamble or the concerned Article of the bill shall be put before the House for re-voting. • If unanimity can not be reached even after re-voting, the bill may be passed by a majority of two-thirds of the votes at a meeting attended by a minimum of two-thirds of the effective strength of the Constituent Assembly. • In course of voting, if no members cast his/her vote against the motion, it shall be deemed as passed unanimously. The court begins its work only after the completion of the election of the members of the Constituent Assembly. The court constituted by the Government of Nepal in consultation with the Supreme Court under Article 118 of the Constitution in order to prosecute and settle the disputes concerning the CA election shall be called the Constituent Assembly Court. • Upon the receipt of a written or verbal complaint regarding a violation of the Code of Conduct, the concerned party engaged in activities against the Code of Conduct shall face action as ordered by the election officer, district election officer or monitoring team constituted by the Commission. • When a written report is received by the local administration or the police regarding electoral offences, action must be taken against those committing the offences, • Electoral (Offences and Punishment) Act, 2006 provides that any person committing any of the electoral offences may receive a fine or punishment depending on the nature of the offences, ranging from Rs. 10,000/-(ten thousand) to Rs. 50,000/- (fifty thousand) or a jail term of two years or both. • Any person attempting or assisting to commit the offence, and inciting others to commit the offence shall receive one half of punishment compared to the convicted original offender. Electoral offence refers to any of the criminal offences concerning the electoral process that affects fair, free and impartial elections. Those engaged in electoral offences are punished under the legal provisions. In the main, the following activities constitute electoral offence: • Casting of a vote by an unauthorized person, • Seeking to influence voters through activities such as causing harm, using threats, imposing social boycotts, including offer of benefit and the like to the voters, • Engage in election publicity campaign causing character assassination of candidates or members of their families, • Conduct election publicity campaign in violation of legally proscribed activities, • Exchange cash or goods in order to influence voters, • Create negative impact by staff personnel assigned to electoral work, • Engage in disturbing peace, • Carry arms or make use of them by anyone excepting the security personnel, • Engage in prohibited behaviour such as causing any damage to electoral notices, ballot paper, ballot box and others, • To receive or distribute ballot paper in an illegal manner, • Fail to carry out election publicity campaigns as prescribed, • To make unauthorized entry into the venue of the counting of votes or obstruct other electoral work • Engage in a breach of secrecy, • To use vehicles in ways other than prescribed by law, • To make attempt, to give assistance or to incite others to commit electoral offences. • When some concerned parties fail to honour or violate the Code of Conduct, the Commission may order such party to stop or desist from doing so. Any political party, candidate, individual, institution, official or agency disregarding such order may be fined up Rs. 100,000. • If the Commission feels the repeated violation of the Code of Conduct by a candidate may affect the election being free, fair and impartial, the candidacy of such a candidate may be cancelled. • Any staff personnel assigned to election work who is found disregarding the Code of Conduct, may face departmental action and punishment from the Commission which may exercise the authority of initiating such action under the prevailing laws determining the terms and conditions of their employment. • If any staff or official is found working contrary to the prevailing laws or the directives of the Commission excepting the situation mentioned above, the Commission may write to the concerned agency to initiate departmental action and such agency shall initiate the departmental action and inform the same to the Commission. The Election Code of Conduct is a body of legal and moral restraints which are to be observed by political parties and candidates, individuals related to these groups, mass media of government and private sector, staff personnel working in government as well as semi-government offices, those working in local bodies as well as assigned to election work and those in government positions. The Election Code of Conduct is required to prevent the use of government means and resources in favor of anyone party, to check unhealthy competition as well as abuse of resources, to make elections less expensive and more dignified and to conduct electoral process in a fair, free, transparent and credible manner. It is the duty of all concerned stakeholders to abide by the Election Code of Conduct. The Election Commission shall investigate whether proportional representation has been duly achieved or not. Election results for the first-past-the-post system of election shall be declared by the concerned election officer at the district headquarters. For the election under the proportional system, the election officer shall make a note of the total number of votes received by each political party and forward these results to the Election Commission. The Commission shall then make a unified tally of vote counting from all districts, specify the numbers of seats a political party shall receive in proportion to the percentage of votes the party has obtained in voting and notify this to the concerned political party. The Commission then recommends the equal number of candidates from the list selected by the central working committee of the concerned party in such a manner that ensures proportional representation as determined by the law. The Commission declares those candidates elected. For example: Political parties received a total of 10 million votes cast all over the country, and if a political party 'A' received 1 million votes, the proportion of votes received by that party would come to 10%. If the total number of seats for proportional representation were 240, on the basis of the total number of votes received by party 'A', it would be entitled to 24 seats. Regarding who would be declared elected to those 24 seats, the closed list of candidates submitted to Election Commission by the concerned party would have enumerated the different groups/regions to proportionately represent the various sectors by fixed percentage as per Article 32, which would have been decided by the central working committee of the party and sent to the Commission; based on the order of this list, the Commission shall announce the winners. The required quorum to conduct business in a meeting of the Constituent Assembly is a minimum of one quarter of the total number of the members, but to adopt the provisions of the constitution, unanimity of opinion or majority votes in accordance with question 10 above is necessary. When the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly is held, the term of the then existing interim legislature-parliament comes to an end and from that time on, the power of the legislature-parliament is exercised by the Constituent Assembly. To manage the functions of the Constituent Assembly, the legislative-parliament secretariat has been designated to act as secretariat of the Constituent Assembly as well. The Constituent Assembly during its tenure shall perform the functions that are to be done by both the Constituent Assembly and legislature-parliament. To carry out the legislative functions of legislature-parliament, a separate committee may be formed. While performing the tasks of legislature-parliament the president and vice-president of the Constituent Assembly shall play the role of speaker and deputy speaker of legislature-parliament respectively. Members of the Constituent Assembly select president and vice-president–one each–from among the members through election. The president and vice-president so elected must be members representing different political parties. The following provisions of representation have been adopted in an attempt to ensure the inclusiveness of the Constituent Assembly: • While selecting candidates for first-past-the-post electoral system, a provision of representation has been made on the basis of gender, geographical region and population size in accordance with the principle of inclusiveness, • While preparing a closed list of candidates by political parties for proportional electoral system, a provision of proportional representation has been made for women, dalits, oppressed caste/indigenous ethnic groups, backward regions, madhesis and other classes, • For election under the proportional system of election, a provision has been made for a minimum of 50% representation of women candidates from each group/sector, • It has been provided that in combination of the two electoral systems, the total number of women candidates must constitute a minimum of one third of the total number of electoral candidates. For the election of the Constituent Assembly, inclusiveness means the processes and approaches aimed to increase the access and participation in the conduct of state affairs and other areas for groups, communities or regions who have lagged behind and who have not been able to join in the nation's mainstream or who have been deprived of playing an effective role because of economic, political, geographic, gender, social and other factors. The Constituent Assembly is arranged to be formed through a mixed electoral system in the following way: • Under the first-past-the-post electoral system one candidate is elected from each election constituency – 240 members • Under proportional electoral system in which the parties receive votes candidates to be elected with the entire country as a single constituency – 335 members • The interim Council of Ministers nominates members from among persons who have distinguished themselves in national life - 26 members • Number of total members – 601 persons The Constituent Assembly, reflecting the sentiment of the entire country and sovereign people would frame the Constitution and duly proclaim it for the nation. The Constituent Assembly has become necessary for Nepal in order to restructure the state as per the mandate of people's movement-2, to ensure the system of democratic governance, to ensure proportional representation in all state organs as provided by the law, to institutionalize the sovereignty vested in the people, to endow the citizens with even more powers and to determine the future of the monarchy. The Electoral Law invests the ministerial cabinet with the power to declare the date for elections. The cabinet decisions are passed down through legal procedures to concerned government authorities for implementation. The parliament may request the cabinet for a decision. The Election Commission, provided for in the Interim Constitution of Nepal 2006, is an independent body in charge of administering general and local elections in Nepal. The Election Commission is composed of five Election Commissioners and a Secretariat with offices throughout Nepal. The main responsibilities of the Election Commission include monitoring all steps of the electoral process such as party and voters registration, distributing electoral symbols, making all preparations required for the conduct of voting and counting, ensuring all elections are conducted according to the elections law, and certifying and announcing election results. More about the Election Commission of Nepal is available in the Election in Nepal section. The legal framework that governs the conduct of elections is defined by the Electoral Laws provided by the Interim Constitution of Nepal 2006. When the ballot boxes have been collected at District headquarters from all the polling stations, the Election Officer publishes a notice mentioning the venue, date and time for counting. The votes are counted at the District headquarters. As far as possible, counting for both FPTP and proportional election votes must begin at the same time at every location. If it is not possible to begin at the same time, the FPTP counting will begin first. After the job has been completed, the phase for the counting of votes under the proportional election system will begin. In the election to Constituent Assembly, two different kinds of ballot papers are being used. Light blue ballot papers will be used for the First Past the Post System and pink ones will be used for proportional Electoral system. You should bring along proof of identification such as citizenship, voter’s card, passport, license or land/property ownership certificate or government-issued identity card to the polling station. Yes. Physically challenged or visually impaired may be assisted to vote. They may take a person of their choosing into the voting booth to help them mark the ballot paper, or to mark the ballot paper on their behalf. There are no special requirements for the one assisting. In order to qualify as a voter, one must fulfill the following conditions: A person must present himself/herself to the registration officers during the registration period or to the District Electoral officers on official working hours in order to be registered as a voter. A candidate for the First Past the Post system will not be allowed to participate in proportional electoral system, although the candidate may stand for election in two First Past The Post elections. To stand for election to the Constituent Assembly, a candidate has to meet the following requirements: The Interim Constitution of Nepal utilizes a “mixed system” for elections to the Constituent Assembly. The First Past The Post system is used to elect 240 members of the Constituent Assembly and a Proportional Representation system is used to elect the other 335 directly elected members. Each voter will receive two ballots, one to vote in the First Past The Post election and one to vote in the Proportional Representation election. If 2/3 majority of the Consitutent Assembly members decide that a certain issue is an issue of national contention, which calls for referendum to make the decision, it is possible to hold referendum to settle such an issue. The term of the Constituent Assembly will be a period of two years. The Interim Constitution of Nepal has the provision to extend the office of the Assembly for a period of 6 months in case the constitution drafting is incomplete due to declaration of emergency in the nation. According to Nepal’s Interim Constitution 2007, the Constituent Assembly will be formed through mixed election: The function of the Constituent Assembly is to draft and implement a new constitution, which ensures the realization of the demands voiced by the people of Nepal, such as rule of law, proportional representation and equal rights to all. The first session of the Constituent Assembly will also determine that fate of the monarchy in Nepal. While the new constitution is being drafted the Constituent Assembly will also act as an interim legislature, until a new government is elected through general elections under the new constitution. A Constituent Assembly has been demanded several times in Nepal’s history. All the constitutions written so far were crafted by the government appointed representatives and not by the representatives directly elected by the people. The Constituent Assembly election has been called in order to elect an assembly which will draft a new constitution to restructure the state according to the needs of all of the people of Nepal. Maoists, the former rebel group, which has now become a part of the government mainstream have also been calling for a Constituent Assembly from the very onset of their rebellion. The objectives of the Constituent Assembly are to arrive at a decision on the future of monarchy, to ensure democratic rule of law and proportional representation in all the bodies of state, to institutionalize the people’s sovereignty and to create an atmosphere for all the citizens to exercise equal rights. A Constitution is the supreme law of the country, which governs the country’s state management. The entire governance system of the country is guided by the provisions of the Constitution and the laws enacted under it. The Constitution guarantees the citizens their fundamental rights and security, and identifies the broad principles and stuctures by which the state is to be governed. The Constituent Assembly is the body of representatives, which is elected and in some cases nominated to write a constitution. In Nepal’s context, the Interim Constitution has authorized the Constituent Assembly to draft a new Constitution. Of the 601 members of the Constituent Assembly, 565 members are to be directly elected by the people in order to make it representative of Nepali society and ensure that all groups in Nepal can participate in drafting a constitution to which they can feel ownership. The other 26 members are to be appointed by the new Cabinet. |
INTERACTION
ARTICLES
PRESS RELEASES
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Maintained by |
© 2008 Nepal Election Portal. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer | Privacy Policy
Developed by Yomari