Kathmandu, January 30
The Parliament has passed the Election Offence and Punishment Bill.
Monday’s meeting of the House passed the Bill. The House has already passed two other election-related Ordinances. It is yet to pass a Bill related to political parties and local elections, though.
The parliamentary State Affairs Committee has not forwarded this Bill in the Parliament in the absence of political understanding on issues like threshold. Major parties are in favour of a three per cent threshold. Small parties have opposed this.
Ananda Dhungana, chair of a sucommittee under the SAC, said parties are close to an agreement on contentious issues. He said the next committee meeting will take a final call.