Solidarity Centre for Nepal Democracy

  Paving the way for the formation of a commission to recommend new electoral constituencies under the new constitution, parliament on Monday endorsed the Constituency Delineation Bill through fast track. In less than 10 months, the government must finalize new electoral constituencies in line with Article 286 of the constitution for holding provincial and parliamentary elections. Article 84 of the new constitution has proposed reducing the existing 240 electoral constituencies to 165 for parliamentary elections. Likewise, as provisioned in Article 176, the number of electoral constituencies for a given provincial assembly will be double the number of lawmakers that province sends to the federal parliament.  The commission will finalize altogether 495 electoral constituencies, including 165 for the House of Representatives and 330 for the provincial assemblies. Amending the original bill tabled by the government, parliament included a provision stating that a co...

CPN (Maoist Center) lawmakers raised serious objections over transfer of budgets only to the home districts of the influential leaders in the party and the government. Speaking at the meeting of parliamentary party on Tuesday, some lawmakers asked Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal why the hefty amount of budget transfer is done on the districts like Chitwan, Rukum and Rolpa ignoring other districts. According to a source, the lawmakers also asked PM Dahal, also the chairman of the Maoist Center, to come up with party's plans to participate in local level elections. Addressing the parliamentary party meeting, PM Dahal urged lawmakers to exercise on creating environment for endorsing the constitution amendment bill registered at the Parliament and to focus on local level election. According lawmaker Giriraj Mani Pokharel, PM also briefed lawmakers about his China visit, which will start on Thursday. MyRepublica 21/03/2017 

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is unlikely to sign any agreements with China during his week long visit starting from Thursday, said highly placed sources at his office.  Dahal is set to fly off to China via Guangzhou at 11 pm on Thursday to participate in the 2017 annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia which is scheduled from March 23 to 26 in Boao, South China's Hainan Province. Though there was high expectation of signing One Belt One Road, railway track construction among others the source said that no agreements signing is yet set during Prime Minister Dahal's upcoming China visit. "There will be some verbal commitments but written agreement signing is unlikely due to time constraints and the visit is only formal one not the official or state visit," said the source.  Will meet Xi for 15 minutes Dahal will attend the conference till March 25 and then will fly to Beijing on the same day. His meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping has been ...

Deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa said the local bodies election would be conducted on scheduled date and urged political parties to begin their campaigns targeting the election. Speaking before the Parliamentary Development Committee, Thapa said both the government and Election Commission were working on a war footing to conduct the election on May 14. He said the government will take the agitating Madhesi parties in confidence for the election. Committee President Rabindra Adhikari said the government put maximum efforts to implement the local levels and Election Commission should assist for it. Ekantipur 21/03/2017

Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba said on Monday the local level elections announced for May 14 were certain to take place. Addressing a programme organised to mark the seventh death anniversary of former NC chief Girija Prasad Koirala in Bhaktapur, Deuba said there would be a constitutional crisis if the three layers of elections were not held by January next year. He asked party cadres to gear up for the polls. “Conspiracies are being hatched to create a rift among the people of Mountains, Hills and the Tarai,” Deuba warned, underlining the need for holding the local polls on schedule to foil such moves. Ekantipur 21/03/2017

The Election Commission has, issuing a press statement today, urged all to abide by the election code of conduct in view of the local level election. The local poll is scheduled for May 14.   The commission has issued 19-point directions, urging to follow the election code in effect since March 1.  It has directed the Ministries, offices, political parties, concerned bodies and institutions to follow the election code.  The press statement further stressing on fair and fear-free environment for the election has warned of action as per prevailing laws if election codes were violated.  

Four more parties in the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) have officially notified Speaker Onsari Gharti about their decision to withdraw support for the government. Pushpa Kamal Dahal was elected the country's 39th prime minister last August with support from the Nepali Congress, the largest party in parliament, and the agitating Madhes-based parties. Representatives of the Tarai-Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP), Madhesi People's Rights Forum-Republican, Sadhbhavana Party and Rastriya Madhes Samajbadi Party officially handed over the letters to this effect to the speaker's secretary Dilliram Rijal at the secretariat of the speaker on Thursday. Two UDMF allies -- Tarai Madhes Sadhbhavana Party and Sanghiya Sadhbhavana Party -- have not yet informed the speaker about their decision though all top Madhesi leaders maintain that they have withdrawn their support for the government. The Federal Socialist Forum Nepal (FSFN), another party in the front, had inf...