US$68.4 million required for mid-term elections in Nepal

While the Supreme Court of Nepal has yet to arrive at its verdict on the petitions filed against the dissolution of the House of Representatives, the Election Commission of Nepal, having held an all-party meeting on January 17, concluded that an estimated US$68.4 million will be required to hold the forthcoming elections in Nepal in two phases with these scheduled for April 30 and May 10.

In addition to estimating the expenses required to hold the elections, the Election Commission prepared a preliminary draft of the election work-plan and schedule with an updated voting register expected to be made public on January 28.

Announcing that policies including the Polling Center and Polling Station Determination Procedure, Gender Inclusion Policy in Election Management, Human Resources Policy in Election Management had already been approved by the Election Commission, Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, Chief Election Commissioner, said, “The preparations of the Social Media Management Policy and the Election Code of Conduct designating election focal persons at local and provincial levels are at the final stage.”

In a similar vein, Raj Kumar Shrestha, the spokesperson of the Election Commission, said that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the expenses for this election would surpass the cost of previous elections with US$66.35 million having been spent for the federal and provincial elections held in 2017.

Stating that around 60 different election items including ballot boxes and papers, vehicles, medicines, voter lists, stationary such as ink and pens, calculators, and glue sticks are required to hold the elections, spokesperson Shrestha added, “These election materials must be sent to districts after mid-March.”

• Nepal adopts a mixed electoral system in which the representatives are selected through First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) and proportional representation (PR) electoral systems.
• Of the 275 seats in the HoR, 165 will be elected through the FPTP system whereas 110 seats will be voted for through the PR system.
• There will be an estimated 16.5 million voters for the scheduled elections.
• A 2013 study carried out by Transparency International indicated that money plays a major role in elections in Nepal.
• In the 2013 Constituent Assembly Elections, candidates and political parties spent enormous sums to win the confidence of voters.
• A total of 49 political parties contested the parliamentary elections in 2017.

On December 20, 2020, Bidya Devi Bhandari, the President of Nepal, dissolved the HoR on the recommendation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli who led the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) spilt having finally acknowledged the demonstrations across the country. One faction of the NCP is now demanding the restoration of the HoR.

Thirteen writs against the dissolution have been filed with the Supreme Court that claim Prime Minister Oli’s decision was unconstitutional whereas he has stated that the HoR was dissolved as per constitutional and international practices.

Justices Anil Kumar Sinha, Sapana Pradhan Malla, Biswambhar Prasad Shrestha, and Tej Bahadur KC led by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JBR began to hear the writs in front of the Constitutional Bench on January 17.