The Election Commission has prepared a draft of the procedure with arrangements for the evaluation, operation, supervision and direction of the political parties by the secretary-led committee. The ruling minor parties and opposition parties have objected that such a system would control the political parties.

The Election Commission has brought a draft of 'Political Party Self-Assessment Procedure, 2082'. Stakeholders have been asked to give suggestions and advice by Thursday. In the proposed procedure, there is a provision that the political party should organize its internal procedure and submit a report to the commission after self-evaluation to make the operation transparent and responsible. 

There is a provision in the proposed procedure that political parties should conduct self-evaluation for the purpose of making it easier to operate according to the law, to strengthen internal democracy, to decide the party's strategy, and to get facilities from the state. It is said that self-evaluation should also be done to build the organizational structure and make the financial situation transparent. 

It is mentioned in the draft that a committee will be formed under the coordination of the secretary of the Election Commission for the operation, supervision and guidance of the political party's self-evaluation system, and the commission's division chiefs, information technology branch chiefs, law, rule and judgment enforcement branch chief members will be members. It is proposed that the head of the political party management branch will be the member secretary. There is also a provision that the committee can invite representatives of political parties, employees and other people to the meeting of the committee as needed.

In the proposed procedure, it is said about the tasks, duties and rights of the committee, "to evaluate, operate, monitor and direct the political party, to conduct or conduct an investigation regarding whether the party has/has not evaluated itself according to this procedure." It is said that the committee will have the right to make a decision regarding a party based on the investigation and recommend it to the relevant commissioner with its opinion. It is also mentioned in the draft that the committee will have an arrangement to investigate the complaints and complaints related to the evaluation.  It is said that the committee will also have the authority to prepare an evaluation list based on the scores obtained by the

party, inform the political party to appoint a contact person, regularly monitor whether the party has appointed/not appointed a contact person, and give instructions to appoint a contact person immediately if no contact person has been appointed. It is stated in the proposed procedure that the committee will have the right to arrange for the self-evaluation report to be submitted to the commission within three months of the end of the financial year, and to make the self-evaluation report public. 

Political parties other than Congress and UML have commented that the Election Commission is trying to curb the opposition, new and small political parties through procedures. Leader of the main opposition party in the Federal Parliament and Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal held a meeting at Singha Darbar on Wednesday regarding the proposed procedure of the Election Commission. Along with the Maoists, opposition parties RSVP, RPPA, United Socialists, JSP Nepal, Aam Janata Party and ruling parties JSP, LOSPA, Janmat, Civil Liberties Party participated in the meeting.  The

meeting concluded that the proposed self-assessment procedure is against the constitution and the law. Leaders who participated in the meeting said that National People's March also supported it. The opposition and the ruling small parties will announce their common opinion on the proposed procedure on Thursday.

'We concluded that the self-evaluation procedure brought by the Election Commission is against the constitution and the law,' said Maoist Deputy General Secretary Varshman Pun, 'We concluded that the Election Commission is also involved in eliminating parties other than the Congress and UML.'

RSVP MP Sobita Gautam, who participated in the meeting, said that the commission tried to control all but two political parties in the name of self-evaluation procedure. "In order to self-evaluate, there is a provision for employees to evaluate the party," she said.

Senior Advocate Gopalkrishna Ghimire, former president of Nepal Bar Association, commented that the procedure put forward by the Election Commission tried to interfere with the party system guaranteed by the constitution. "It is wrong to form a committee under the leadership of the staff and the secretary of the commission to direct and operate the political party," he said, adding that the right to direct and operate the political party does not belong to the staff. It seems that they are trying to gradually weaken the party system by making such an arrangement.

Ghimire says that there is a danger that such legal provisions will be misused when people with autocratic tendencies come to power. "With such provisions, people in power may suppress other parties, follow someone's instructions, obey orders, take action if they don't obey," he added, "One may like it or not, but the party system is envisioned by the constitution. The commission should look at the time of party registration, it should not be controlled by creating such procedures that have already been registered. The Election Commission should run according to the basic spirit of the Constitution.

Election Commission Secretary Mahadev Panth said that the commissioners should be asked about the procedure. Mentioning that he has only been in charge of the Secretary of the Election Commission for a month, he said, "This is the procedure brought by the Commission." We will discuss it in the commission tomorrow. Nita Pokharel Aryal, spokesperson of the commission, said that an opinion has been requested to amend the procedure.