EC discusses draft code of conduct

Kathmandu, June 25 –  The Election Commission (EC) today held discussions on a draft code of conduct for the proposed Constituent Assembly election with the representatives of the 76 political parties registered for the election.

The commission sought suggestions from the representatives of the political parties regarding the topics that need to be added to or deleted from the draft election code of conduct.

EC claims that the proposed code of conduct is a reformed version of the code of conduct prepared for the first Constituent Assembly (CA) elections held in 2008.

The code of conduct basically includes codes of ethics which the political parties and the candidates have to abide by for rendering the election free and fair. The EC has stated that the code of conduct has been prepared with the objective so that there will be equal participation of all the political parties and candidates in the election and that an atmosphere would be created in which all can go to the people asking for votes without fear.

It has urged all the political parties, the government and the media to adopt the proposed Constituent Assembly Election Code of Conduct, 2013 in heart, words and deeds once it is finalised.

At the discussion, the smaller parties pointed out that the code of conduct should be friendly to them and that the EC should strictly enforce it for preempting the use of money and weapons and muscle power in the elections.

The proposed code of conduct stipulates that a person standing as candidate under the first-past-the-post can spend maximum amount of one million rupees for the election purpose and that no political party can charter a plane or helicopter for electioneering.

In the discussions, the UCPN (Maoist) had argued for continuing the code of conduct prepared for the previous CA election whereas the other parties had expressed that the proposed code of conduct itself should be enforced after making slight changes in its language and wording.

The EC has proposed that any person standing as candidate under the proportional election system can spend 100 thousand rupees for the election.

 

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