A decade has passed since the constitution was promulgated and the debate on the amendment of the constitution has begun. It is necessary to review the positive and negative experiences gained during the implementation of the constitution.

On that basis, the constitution should be amended with a forward-looking agenda keeping the maximum interest of the country and the people at the center. In the case of constitutional amendment, government system, federalism and many other issues are under debate. At the center of the debate now is the electoral system as an increasingly important agenda.

The history of elections in Nepal is long. After the constitutional procedure started, the provision of election system was kept in the constitution . The method of selection or election that started from the accepted methods of choosing their own leaders/leaders by different classes, communities, groups, castes has reached the present modern and scientific state. 

After the people's revolution ended the feudal monarchy system in Nepal and the democracy and republic came, a system was established for the sovereign people to rule by themselves . A democratic practice was introduced in which the people exercise public sovereignty, i.e. state power, through their elected representatives. It is used by elections. 

The institutional development of the political system takes place through the electoral system. In a democratic system, elections are the basic basis of politics. Election is the beauty of democracy, it is the essence. Today's question, what kind of election system would be suitable to ensure the real representation of the people and rule through their representatives?

Elections are the foundation of democracy. Parties and leaders are forced to be accountable to the people as they have to be approved by the people through periodic elections. Thus, there is a unique relationship between democracy and elections. Where elections are not effective, democracy is weak, where democracy is weak, elections are just appearances. Therefore, the correctness of the electoral system is a basic condition of democracy. Democratic elections make political parties, leaders and state agencies accountable to the people. If the election is not clean and fair, it loses its credibility . According to Machiavelli's statement that "everything other than power and authority is an illusion", elections become only a ladder to power. The only goal is to win the election by any kind of rigging.  

As the American scholar Jefferson said, 'Election system should be simple, easy and understandable by the people.' The method we adopted from the debate discussion should be made more timely, inclusive and people-oriented in our context. 

problem 

First in the world to be elected, proportional, mixed, single transferable, double vote, cyclical etc. election systems are in use . A mixed election system has been adopted in the elections of the House of Representatives and the Provincial Assembly, which form the government in Nepal. In which sixty percent are directly or first elected and forty percent proportional. 

Our form of government and election system has created many problems. This system could neither provide political stability nor ensure truly proportional inclusion . The current proportional system seems to be misused rather than expected achievement. Therefore, it is necessary to bring an inclusive, practical and scientific election system that addresses our ground realities.

Political instability occurs when no party can get a majority in this electoral system. Due to a hung parliament, there is a compulsion to form a government. There is a compulsion to make alliances, but we lack a culture of alliances . The country is forced to suffer the fate of having to form alliances between those who do not agree with the principles of power, and those alliances will continue to collapse. It seems that the government and parties are only interested in bringing down the government and coming to power rather than public service and development. Not only that, the parliament is also facing a series of dissolutions. In this process, the parties lose their originality, increase instability and weaken the party system. 

This system is uncivilized and very expensive, unscientific and impractical. This will neither make the election fair nor prevent electoral malpractices. Politics is being hijacked from the hands of the people and the trend of criminals, dons, smugglers, mafia, non-political people contesting elections for their vested interests, winning, reaching the parliament, becoming ministers and fulfilling their interests is becoming dominant . Due to which politics is turning towards corruption and criminalization. The money spent on elections is not visible in the banking system, both sources and expenses are opaque . It is ironic that mafia, contractors and businessmen have to appeal to win elections. There is a situation in which both the candidates and the voters go astray due to the trend of money and food in the elections. As a result, real representatives of the people, honest and qualified political workers are unable to compete in the elections. This has spread dissatisfaction and frustration among the people. 

The elected person is bound to focus only on his constituency . An MP elected from one constituency becomes the Prime Minister of the country. But neither does he feel responsibility towards the people of the country nor do the people of the country feel belonging and ownership by considering the Prime Minister as their representative . The tendency of Prime Minister, Ministers to pour plans, budgets, services in their areas to win the next election has been seen naked. In this way, neither a national vision is formed, nor the common people have access to power . There is no balanced development of the country. 

is the conclusion of our bitter experience, it is necessary to get rid of the distortions of the current electoral system. The system that corrupts all parties, candidates and voters must be changed now. To ensure political stability and proportional inclusive representation in Nepal, it seems necessary to go for the most appropriate option among the following three options. 

The first option: The alternative to the current election system can be a full proportional system . It is an inclusive system . The beauty of this system is the proportional representation of all classes, regions, communities, castes, languages ​​and marginalized communities in public representative institutions. Anomalies like moneymen, gangsters, relatives, biggies of the so-called influential are less . There is no unnecessary fuss . This system is relatively good in the world because it is less expensive, there is not much financial manipulation, and people are not dominated. Despite strengthening democracy and party politics, the bad side of this system is instability. In this system, there is no political stability as no party is likely to get a majority in the parliament. 

Adopting the full proportional election system in the parliament requires a change in the form of government along with it. The system of electing the head of government i.e. the prime minister from the parliament should be changed . For political stability, the country's executive head should be directly elected by the people. We have already adopted the presidential system in local bodies. 

To ensure political stability and proportional inclusion, the issue of a fully proportional election system in the parliament and a president elected directly by the people is also raised. A directly elected president may be in danger of becoming autocratic. Therefore, a directly elected presidential system with parliamentary supervision and control should be adopted. The President should be able to serve for five years without being elected. But if it is necessary to prevent the president from becoming autocratic, the Parliament should make arrangements to remove him from office by impeachment .

When adopting this system, parliamentarians should be given full legislative responsibility, not executive. MPs should not be ministers and focus on law and policy making. A cabinet should be formed from non-parliamentary politicians or expert experts. Then division of scientific work takes place and a national vision of nation building can be formed. 

The second option: First-come-first-served proportional inclusive electoral system . It is a kind of mixed electoral system . In order to maintain proportional inclusion ensured by the constitution, all positions will be filled through direct election and proportionality should be ensured. When candidates are nominated in direct elections, constituencies are protected on a cyclical basis in targeted groups. In this system, the constituencies must be reserved on the basis of caste, region and gender in order to go to direct elections by ensuring proportional representation. Accordingly, the share of women, Dalits, tribals, Madhesi, Muslims, minorities and disabled should be clearly mentioned in each cluster.

If a 'proportional inclusion first elected system' is put in place, it is ensured that a strong and stable government will be formed . On the direct side, inclusive representation of Dalits, women, etc. is also certain. This system can guarantee political stability with proportional inclusive representation. 

The third option: make the National Assembly fully inclusive, the House of Representatives adopt a fully directly elected system . Proportional inclusion of all classes, castes and communities will be ensured in the National Assembly. The good part of this system is political stability as any political party can win a majority. But the perversity of unlimited spending, rigging, buying and selling and using any expedient to win the election is a danger to be alive. 

At the moment, the subject of 'threshold' is also in discussion. In a multi-party system, it is a constitutional right to open a party, operate it and get party recognition. Giving national recognition on the basis of the votes obtained in a multi-party system is against the spirit of the constitution and multi-party system. Setting a 'threshold' for party status is a form of 'party syndicate'. Therefore, the system of 'threshold' should be removed . The party represented in the parliament should arrange to get national recognition . 

In the context of our country, there is a widespread rumor that the country cannot support so many ministers, parliamentarians, and municipal representatives due to the large number of representatives, which is true. Therefore, it should be ruthless to reduce the number of ministers, parliamentarians and local people's representatives. At least 50 percent of the current number should be 'downsized'.