The commission had issued similar instructions previously, but the parties disobeyed, saying there was no provision in the law.
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The Election Commission has directed political parties to include at least one-third of women in their direct candidacies in the upcoming House of Representatives elections.
The Commission has directed to improve the situation as political parties have shown a tendency to field a low number of female candidates.
The Commission had issued similar directives in the 2079 elections to the House of Representatives and the Provincial Assembly. However, political parties had disobeyed the directives. The Commission could not strictly implement the directives due to the lack of clear and binding provisions in the law. This time too, there is doubt that the Commission's directives will be implemented due to the lack of law.
The constitution itself has ensured proportional inclusive representation in the electoral system, and we expect political parties to implement the Commission's directives. – Ram Prasad Bhandari, Acting Chief Election Commissioner The House of Representatives Election Act stipulates that at least 50 percent of the total candidates should be women when submitting the closed list of candidates for proportional representation. The constitution has provided for one-third of the members of the federal parliament to be women. A 'cluster' has been arranged under the federal parliament so that one-third of the women are elected to the National Assembly. In the House of Representatives, however, political parties have been fielding fewer female candidates directly and selecting more women from the proportional list to reach one-third.
In the 2079 House of Representatives elections, 5.5 percent of the direct candidates from the Congress and 7.8 percent from the UML were women. The Maoists fielded the highest number of female candidates, 17.4 percent. The Maoists, which contested the elections in an alliance, fielded 88 women in 46 constituencies. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) fielded 9.2 percent of the candidacies, the RPP 5.7 percent, and the JSP 8.9 percent of the candidacies went to women.
In the 2079 House of Representatives elections, there were 2,412 candidates in 165 constituencies in the direct category. Of these, 225 were women. Only 9 women were elected directly. In the 2074 House of Representatives elections, only 144 out of 1,925 direct candidates were women. Of these, only 6 were elected.
Women leaders who have been raising their voices in favor of equal participation have been demanding that political parties make 50 percent of their candidates women in the direct category as well. Political parties that keep making the slogan of proportional inclusive representation an election issue have been ignoring such voices.
UML leader Binda Pandey says that the situation will not improve unless it is made mandatory by law. ‘The commission’s directive is only a moral issue for the parties,’ she said, ‘The government is preparing to bring an ordinance to make necessary reforms in the election law, and this provision should also be included in it.’ A team including Pandey has been ‘lobbying’ for this by meeting Prime Minister Sushila Karki and officials of the Election Commission.
Article 38(4) of the Constitution has ensured the right of women to participate in all state bodies on the basis of the principle of proportional inclusion. Women constitute half of the population and voters. But there is no representation according to that. Women’s rights activists and politicians have been demanding proportional participation in every level, post and system of the state.
The commission's directive is only a moral issue for the parties, the government is preparing to bring an ordinance related to elections, and it should include provisions for direct women's candidacy - Binda Pandey, UML leader The Women’s Commission had submitted a report to the then Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa in 2060 BS demanding one-third women’s representation in all sectors. At that time, Pandey was a member of the Women's Commission. The interim constitution formed after the people's movement had addressed the demands raised by women to some extent. Since then, women's representation in the Constituent Assembly has increased since the candidacy.
The share of directly elected women in the Constituent Assembly and the Legislative Assembly formed in 2064 was 12.5 percent. Before that, women's candidacy was 6 percent in the three elections of 2048, 2051 and 2056. At that time, the number of constituencies was 205. The electoral system was only direct. In the House of Representatives, there was 3 percent women's representation in 2048 and 2051 and 6 percent in 2056.
Acting Chief Election Commissioner Ram Prasad Bhandari says that since the constitution itself ensures proportional inclusive representation in the electoral system, it is the responsibility of political parties to implement it. He said that the commission has drawn the attention of the parties to various articles of the constitution that ensure gender and inclusive representation. “We expect that the political parties will implement the commission’s directives,” says Bhandari.
