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Kathmandu, January 26: The NC-UML coalition government plans to amend the election law by increasing the existing threshold for elections.

In the existing election law, there is a threshold of 3% in the federation and 1.5% in the provinces.

However, the NC and UML have decided to increase the threshold to five % in the federation and 3% in the provinces.

Small parties have opposed such a government plan saying that the idea is to rule the country through a two-party system. Meanwhile, the NC and UML leaders are saying that the existing threshold provision has contributed to political instability as a single party cannot secure the necessary majority. Also, they believe that the number of small parties has increased due to the threshold provision.

The Election Commission had submitted an election laws amendment draft to the government by keeping as-it-is the threshold provision, nevertheless, the Home Ministry has corrected the draft by increasing the threshold provision and preparing it to table the election laws amendment bill.

The majority of the members in the Election Commission and also former election commissioners have opined that the threshold should not be increased.

If the government will present the new bill, there is the possibility of a tussle in Parliament.

People’s News Monitoring Service.