Kathmandu, Dec 19: The government has made legal provisions to set proportional representation quotas in elections based on population figures. To this end, the Cabinet has approved an ordinance and submitted it to the President for issuance.
The ordinance seeks to fix representation percentages for Indigenous Nationalities, Dalits, Khas Arya, Madhesi, Tharu, and Muslim groups under the proportional electoral system for the House of Representatives. These changes revise existing arrangements to more accurately reflect population shares.
At its Thursday meeting, the Cabinet decided to amend the Election Act in line with the final report of the 2021 National Census. The aim is to adjust cluster wise representation percentages according to updated census data.
Minister for Communications and Information Technology Jagadish Kharel said the ordinance revises the schedule of the House of Representatives Member Election Act 2017 based on new population figures for the listed communities.
Following discussions at the Election Commission on December 9, a six-member committee was formed under the coordination of Sub Secretary Subash Kumar Bhattarai of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs. The committee included representatives from the Election Commission, the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration, and the National Statistics Office. It was tasked with submitting a report within three days.
Based on the 2021 census, the committee finalized population-based percentages. Of the 275-member House of Representatives, 165 members are elected through the first-past-the-post system, while 110 are elected through proportional representation. Political parties will submit closed lists based on population percentages, and seats will be allocated according to votes received.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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