SC stays EC directive barring contractors from contesting polls
The Supreme Court has stayed the Election Commission’s directive that required candidates contesting local polls to declare that they are not involved in contractual or real estate business.
KATHMANDU, April 11: The Supreme Court (SC) postponed the hearing of a writ petition filed demanding suspension of the upcoming local level polls.
The local polls are scheduled for May 13.
Stating that the government has decided to go for local polls before expiry of tenures of local representatives, Chairman of Mainapur Rural Municipality, Bijay Kumar Chaurasiya, had filed a writ petition at the apex court.
Earlier, a single bench of Justice Prakash Man Singh had issued a show cause notice on the case. The court was scheduled to refuse or give an interim order on the case today.
With this, the hearing on the case now remains uncertain.
KATHMANDU, Feb 22: The Supreme Court (SC) has refused to issue an interim order to delay the local level polls.
Conducting a hearing on the writ petition filed at the apex court against the announcement of local level election dates, a bench of Justice Bishamber Prasad Shrestha refused to issue an interim order.
Mayor Sanjeeb Kumar Shah of Bangaha Municipality of Mahottari district had filed the writ petition at the apex court.
Stating that the government announced the dates for election before ending the tenure of elected representatives, Mayor Shah had demanded the SC to scrap the decision.
The apex court has however asked the government to show the reason for announcing the election dates earlier than scheduled.
KATHMANDU, July 5: At a time when the Supreme Court (SC) is almost finalizing the hearing on the House dissolution case, the Election Commission (EC) has published the schedule for the November midterm elections.
President Bidya Devi Bhandari dissolved the lower House of parliament on May 22 and declared that the mid-term polls will be held in two phases --- first on November 12 and the other on November 19--- on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers.
The poll body, on Monday, made the work schedule as per the government’s decision.
According to the routine, the election period is scheduled to kick off from July 15. The EC will announce the registration of the political parties aspiring to contest for the polls.
By September 8, the updated electoral roll will be published.
Candidate nomination for the first phase of election will take place on October 6 and 7. Final list of candidates with their election symbols will be published on October 11.
Nomination of candidates for the second phase of election to be held on November 19 is scheduled to happen on October 17 and 18. The final list of the candidates will be released on October 22. Candidates will also be provided their election symbol on that day.
Until and unless the Supreme Court (SC) reinstates the Lower House for further proceedings, the country will witness the snap polls on November 12 and 19
Claims for new govt formation were rejected
KATHMANDU, May 22: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has dissolved the House of Representatives (HoR) at the recommendation of the Council of Ministers.
President Bhandari dissolved the lower house of parliament as per Article 76 (7) and announced fresh parliamentary elections for November 12 and 19, at 1 AM on Saturday morning upon the recommendation of Cabinet meeting held on Friday midnight.
Earlier, Bhandari rejected the claims staked for the new government formation as per Article 76 (5). Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli claimed to have the support of a majority of lawmakers in parliament. While PM Oli said that as many as 153 lawmakers --- 121 from the UML and 32 from the Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) --- supported him for new government formation, Deuba also claimed to have support of 149 lawmakers --- 61 from NC, 49 from CPN (Maoist Center), 26 from ruling CPN-UML’s Madhav Nepal faction, 12 from Janata Samajbadi Party’s Upendra Yadav faction and an independent lawmaker. The claims from both the leaders were rejected citing the lack of strong bases for new government formation as per Article 76 (5).
Following the rejection of claims for a new government, a Cabinet meeting was held at the prime minister’s official residence in Baluwatar and decided to recommend to the president to announce snap polls for November 12 and 19 later this year.
This is the second time that PM Oli dissolved the House. Earlier, he had unconstitutionally dissolved the 275-member HoR on December 20 last year which was restored by the Supreme Court (SC) verdict on February 23.
