By Our Reporter

The present coalition government of NC and UML was formed on July 1 last year with the main goal of maintaining political stability by making amendments to the constitution, particularly the election system.

Although it is not sure whether the two big parties will truly make attempts to amend the constitution because Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli a few days ago said that the constitution would be amended only in 2030, the parties are exercising to elevate the threshold to get the identity of the national parties and elect their representatives through proportional representative (PR) electoral system. In the 2022 elections, the threshold for the House of Representatives was 3 per cent and 1.5 per cent for the Provincial Assembly. The Madhav Kumar Nepal-led CPN (Unified Socialist) failed to become a national party as it could not garner 3 per cent PR votes in 2022.

The NC and UML, particularly UML leaders, are arguing that the small per cent threshold is responsible for political instability as it allows more parties to become the national parties.

Now the leaders of the two parties are exercising to elevate the threshold to 5 per cent for the House of Representatives and 3 per cent for the Provincial Assembly. Moreover, CPN-UML general secretary Shankar Pokharel recently suggested increasing the threshold to 10 per cent.

They argue that the elevation of the threshold will prevent the smaller parties from making their presence in the HR and PAs. No representative from a party will be elected to the HR under PR system if it fails to garner 5 per cent of the total cast votes. If the system was in place in 2022, only five parties would be national parties.

Elevating the threshold proportion from the existing 3 to 5 per cent for the House of Representatives and 1.5 to 3 per cent for the Provincial Assemblies would enable a clear majority. By contrast, Madhesh-based splinter political groups along with newly erupted parties perceive the idea as a majoritarian move to silence smaller parties and their voices. Above all, rise in the threshold will send the country towards the two-party system and it is what the smaller parties, including the CPN (Maoist Centre), are opposing strongly.

The mushrooming of the small parties and their presence in the federal and provincial parliament is blamed for the political instability in the country. It is also evident from the fact that Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the Maoist Centre managed to lead the government though his party has only 32 seats in the 275-member House of Representatives. When NC and UML want to end the situation by increasing the threshold, other parties oppose it as a ploy to establish a two-party system in Nepal.