Former chief election commissioner Nilakantha Upreti said that the problem lies not in the mixed election system of Nepal, but in the leaders of the ruling political parties. He suggested that if the electoral system is to be changed, it should be changed to a fully proportional electoral system.
In the discussion program on electoral system reform organized by the Parliamentary Affairs Journalist Society on Friday, former Chief Election Commissioner Upreti said that the problem lies with the leaders who run the government rather than the electoral system.
'The problem is not in Nepal's election system, but in the person who runs the government,' he said. If we go to a full direct election system, it will be more difficult.'
Upreti also said that due to the direct election system, elections are becoming more expensive. He also said that there is a wrong tendency for candidates to spend in direct election system and voters to expect expenses from candidates. Candidates spend in direct election system. As the political party has to spend in the proportional election system, it is not as expensive as in the direct election,' he said.
Upreti said that the comment that the majority will not be enough for the formation of the government by adopting a proportional system is also wrong. 'Majority is reached even in a proportional system . In this system, not a single vote is wasted, even a majority is reached,' he said.
He also says that the Election Commission has not been able to stop the expenses incurred by the candidates in the direct election system. He said that after winning the election, the candidates say that they have spent crores of rupees, but when they submit the election expenses, that is not mentioned. He said that most of the expenses will be incurred on the day before the election and during the night, so such expenses will not be visible.
Likewise, Upreti also says that the threshold for the election of provincial and federal parliamentarians should be the same. He also said that the legislators and the commission have not been able to clarify why they have kept different thresholds for the provincial and federal parliament elections.
In the future, Upreti suggested that the voters who are abroad should also be given the right to vote. "The state should be able to use the voter's franchise". No matter which country the voters are from, they should exercise their right to vote,' he said, 'We studied in our time. It is seen that there is a possibility. The state should make good use of it.'
