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Kathmandu Wednesday July 12, 2000 Ahsad 28, 2057.
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Polls not fair: PM
States population-based constituencies not reasonable
By a Post Reporter
KATHMANDU, July 11 - Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today said
democracy is yet to
establish firmly in Nepal because the elections have not been impartial.
He was addressing a central level seminar on Reforming the Electoral
Procedure which aimed to collect opinions from political parties and various segments of
the government.
Admitting that past elections were fraught with errors, Koirala urged the
Election Commission to make elections "totally impartial" in future. He said,
"More than laws, party’s commitments to their declared ethics make elections
impartial. And, the violators must be punished, no matter who breaks the law."
He also pointed out that dividing constituencies only on the basis of the
population is not a reasonable step in the long run. He added, "We must take both
geography as well as population into account while dividing constituencies to represent
the whole country because people from the hills are migrating to Terai regions creating a
total imbalance of population density."
Chief Election Commissioner Bishnu Pratap Shah said that since the last
parliamentary elections, the election code of conduct was made binding as law there is no
need to form another law to check malpractice during elections.
Lower House Speaker Taranath Ranabhat said that muscle and money power has
been used at various levels to influence the outcome of elections. Right from preparing
the voters’ list to vote counting, various forces come into play and affect the
election results. "So much so data vanish even from the computers at the Election
Commission," he alleged.
Madhav Kumar Nepal, General-Secretary of the main opposition party CPN-UML
said no election has been free of controversies. That shows that the election system
itself must be faulty. "Due to large scale rigging people witnessed in the past
elections, they have become disenchanted. Such situation may result in anything
unexpected," he warned.
CPN-ML General-Secretary Bamdev Gautam went straight against the very
Constitution of the state. He claimed that we have made mistakes while drafting the
Constitution so without revising it, amending the present election procedure will be
useless. He said, "You reap what you sow."
Lilamani Pokharel, General-Secretary of United People’s Front charged
the government of rigging in every election. He also accused ruling parties at various
times of misusing national resources and using police force and media for self-interest.
He said, "I have experienced that even foreign observers interfered in the election
processes."
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