Kathmandu, March 28
Owing to protests launched by various small parties, the Election Commission has decided to provide them also with their own election symbols to contest the local elections scheduled for May 13.
A meeting of the election commissioners held on Sunday made the decision to not implement the discriminatory provision of the Local Level Election Act, 2017.
Election Commission spokesperson Shaligram Sharma Paudel says the parties that do not have the status of a national party will also get the symbols they are registered with.
Section 26 of the Local Level Election Act, 2017, has the provision to hand out election symbols to all candidates in local elections. But, the act states that the election symbols of their respective political parties will only be given to candidates belonging to “national parties” as defined by the Act on Political Parties.
To be a national party, you have to do more than win an election. According to the act, a party has to win at least 3 per cent of votes in the proportional representation system from the entire country in the latest House of Representatives elections. In addition, they also need to win one seat in the House in the first-past-the-post system.
Therefore, despite the good work done by the candidate, if he/she is from a small party, he/she might not get the election symbol of the party they represent during the local elections.
However, the provision will not be implemented this time as per the Election Commission’s recent decision.
