Kailali Constituency No. 1 Election Officer Devraj Bharti says, ”A complaint has already been filed against Resham Chaudhary. Even if no complaint is filed against any candidate, if it is found to be incompatible with the law, it will automatically be canceled.”
A complaint has been filed against the candidacy of Resham Chaudhary, a candidate of the Civil Liberties Party Nepal, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Supreme Court. Chaudhary has registered his candidacy in Kailali Constituency No. 1 of the House of Representatives. A complaint was filed against his candidacy at the office of the Returning Officer on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court had upheld the verdict of the Kailali District Court and the Dipayal High Court on 2 June 2080, which sentenced Resham Chaudhary to life imprisonment in the Tikapur incident in which eight policemen and a minor were killed.
However, 12 days after the verdict, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison and had not served even one-third of the sentence. On the recommendation of the Council of Ministers on 14 June 2080, President Ram Chandra Poudel commuted the remaining sentence and released him on 15 June 2080, Republic Day.
Under the existing law, a person who holds a public office or a position of profit or receives remuneration in a grant-in-aid organization and has not paid the penalty for two years from the date of serving the sentence, as per the prevailing law on elections, cannot be a candidate.
Similarly, a person who has been sentenced to life imprisonment or 20 years or more in prison for corruption, rape, human trafficking and smuggling, drug sales and distribution, export or import, money laundering, passport misuse, kidnapping or other criminal offenses involving moral turpitude and whose sentence has become final is also not eligible to become a candidate for the House of Representatives.
In addition, a person who has been sentenced to imprisonment for an organized crime offense or less than 20 years in prison for a crime related to dereliction of duty and who has not completed 6 years from the date of serving such sentence, and a person who has been sentenced to imprisonment for five years or more in other offenses and who has not completed 6 years from the date of serving such sentence, is also prohibited by the Election Act for Members of the House of Representatives.
There is a legal provision that a person who has been sentenced to imprisonment for caste discrimination and untouchability, boxing or polygamy and who has not completed three years from the date of serving such sentence, is blacklisted and is not eligible to become a candidate for the entire period of imprisonment. A person who has a permanent residence permit of a foreign country is also disqualified from becoming a candidate for the election.
Kailali Constituency No. 1 Election Officer Devraj Bharti said that instead of not registering any candidate's nomination, a period has been fixed through a clear schedule to study whether the process was not in accordance with the law, etc. after the nomination.
'The period has been fixed from 3 pm on Wednesday to 5 pm on Thursday to study all the documents.' We will look into everything in this process,' Election Officer Bharti said, 'A complaint has also been filed against Resham Chaudhary. Even if no complaint is filed against any candidate, if it is found to be in accordance with the law, it will automatically be canceled.'
