By Usman Khan

On Thursday, the Nepalese government decided to hold general and provincial elections on November 20. Around 18.6 million voters projected to have been listed for the future elections. Around 1 million added since the May 13 local level elections. The general elections have 107 days which are enough for preparations.

As the Cabinet meeting finalized to conduct the polls on November 20 in a single phase as per the approval of the Election Commission. The government conclusion comes a day after the five parties in the ruling coalition got an accepting on holding the elections on the said date. Political parties have decided on ongoing the current House until a day before the proposal filing.

The coalition’s general understanding is that the term of the House will expire once the nominations are filed. In 2017, federal and provincial polls were held in two phases on November 26 and December 7.

The poll body now has 107 days for the arrangements, even still the Election Commission Act 2017 calls for 120 days from the declaration of the election date to the polling day. Section 2 clause (I) of the Election Commission Act 2017 says: ‘Election period’ means the 120 days earlier to the election until the day when the election results are held.

However, according to the act in the case where such period would be fewer than 120 days, the period between the date of statement and the day on which the final outcomes are made public shall be measured the election period. With the announcement of the date, the Election Commission has halted the voter roll update programme.

Chief Election Commissioner said about one million new electorates have been listed afterward the local polls in May and the election commission will declare the total number of voters soon. For the May 13 local polls, 17.73 million voters were listed of which 11.54 million applied their franchise. According to the Election Commission the preliminary estimates suggest there could be 18.6 million voters for the imminent polls.

At the press meeting organized closely after the government proclaimed the poll date said the commission now will gearup its preparations. The election commission will make the election timetable in such a way that the nomination will start right after the Dashain festival on October 5.

The term of incumbent lawmakers and provincial assembly members will officially end on December 7, given the fact that they were elected for five years and they are believed to have been elected on December 8, 2017.

Though, in cases of those who file the nominations, their term will be considered to have ended that very day. The principle that all the candidates must have a level playing field is likely to create misunderstanding as the parties are saying the House will exist until a day earlier nominations.

Now that the elections have been announced, the Election Commission said that it has learned from some errors made during the local level polls and that it would make better during the approaching to not repeat the mistakes.

During the local polls, there were reports that even deceased persons were on the voter list and many polling booths were unreachable to voters in the distant areas. The May 13 local polls also saw a significant number of illegal votes, which the commission officials and observers accused on the complex ballot papers and an absence of voter education.

This time the Election Commission says it has prepared separate ballot papers for the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) and Proportional Representation (PR) systems for both the House of Representatives and provincial assemblies.

This facility will entail to print around 80 million ballot papers but it will help decrease illegal votes as they will only be published after the candidates are confirmed. During the local polls, the ballot papers were published even for those areas where there were no contenders. This led to a surge in the number of invalid votes.

On November 20, Nepal will elect to elect 275 members for the House of Representatives 165 under the FPTP system and 110 under the PR system. Concurrently, 550 members for the seven provincial assemblies will be chosen 330 under the FPTP system and 220 under the PR system.

The election commission is also making to form a separate office at its central office next week as political parties will start registering themselves for the November 20 elections. The parties will have to submit their PR lists before nominations for the FPTP candidates start.

The five parties in the governing coalition the Nepali Congress, the CPN (Maoist Centre), the CPN (Unified Socialist), the Janata Samajbadi Party and the Rastriya Janamorcha have agreed to contest the imminent elections under an electoral coalition, like they did in the local level polls. Seat-sharing, however, is going to be a tough task for the parties.

The five-party coalition has called a meeting on Friday morning, which is predictable to deliberate seat-sharing for the November 20 polls. Congress is eyeing at least 100 seats under the direct election system, with 65 seats to be distributed among the remaining partners. However, the alliance constituents are demanding at least 80 seats for them. The alliance aims to keep the CPN-UML, which had emerged as the largest party in 2017, in check.

If the local poll results are anything to go by, the Congress is likely to arise as the largest party, with the CPN-UML coming second and the Maoist Centre third. If no party wins a majority, government then it will be matter of the number game. The constitution has barred a no-confidence motion for two years.