This report is issued by the UN RCHCO with inputs from its UN Field Coordination Offices and other partners and sources. The report covers June 2013. The next report will be issued the first week of August 2013.
Political update
On 13 June, the Interim Electoral Council of Ministers (IECM) announced the next Constituent Assembly (CA) elections for 19 November 2013. The announcement followed the promulgation of the final piece of electoral legislation which had been delayed due to the High Level Political Committee’s failure to agree on proposed electoral provisions. Most notably, the one percent threshold of national votes to win a proportional representation seat (which would have excluded many smaller parties from the constitution drafting process) was dropped. However, the provision barring people convicted of serious crimes from contesting elections was retained. Meanwhile, the IECM established a Constituency Delineation Commission that is mandated to re-delineate constituencies on basis of the 2011 Census data. The commission has been given a month to deliver its findings.
The announcement of the election date angered those parties that remain opposed to the process and IECM, including the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-Maoist), the Madheshi People’s Rights Forum-Nepal (MPRF-N) and the Federal Socialist Party (FSP). They claim that the government and High Level Political Committee have not paid heed to their demands. On 16 June, together with a number of smaller opposing political parties, they enforced a nation-wide bandh. However, an expected program of protests did not materialize perhaps reflecting ideological and tactical differences amongst this loose alliance.
Political emphasis will now shift to bringing opposing parties ‘on board’ and whether the larger parties are willing to make necessary concessions in this regard. Constituency re-delineation and the ratio of proportional representation seats within the next CA are important issues to resolve, though they will likely be complex and potentially contested. Many observers also remain uncertain in regards to the commitment of the major political parties to holding elections within the current timetable.