Kathmandu, May 23: With the holding of three general elections and two local elections after the restoration of democracy in 1990, political leaders and the Election Commission have finally felt the need to improvise the election procedures and the existing Election Act.

Members of the sub- committees formed for the Improvement of Election Management and Improvement of Existing Election Act and Regulations today raised a host of election related issues in need of improvement for the holding of peaceful and impartial elections.

The government had formed a high level committee nearly nine months ago to carry out a study of the anomalies in the Election Act and the management of elections.

As a follow up to the high level committee two subcommittees –Improvement of Election Management and Improvement of Existing Election Act were formed with lawmakers Iswore Pokharel of the CPN(UML) and Krishna Sitaula of Nepali Congress as coordinators nearly two months back.

Coordinators of the two subcommittees interacted with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Development Ram Chandra Poudel, Home Minister Govinda Raj Joshi and Minister for Law and Justice Mahanta Thakur to work out the necessary improvements to be made in the Election Act and the management of elections.

Lawmaker Iswore Pokharel said that there were many improvements required in the election procedure of the local bodies.

The Village Development Council and the Town Development Council in several cases have not been able to sanction the development budget owing to the fact that the Mayor of the Municipalities and the Village Development Committee do not have the majority of their political party in the Council, Pokharel said.

He said that in some cases the positions in the VDCs and DDCs were found to be lying vacant for a long time following the deaths of the elected representatives as the deaths were not reported to the Election Commission.

Deputy Prime Minister Poudel said that to overcome this problem a mechanism should be developed by the Election Commission to monitor the local bodies and hold elections within a year where positions had fallen vacant.

On the issue of the difficulties faced by the Village Councils and Town Councils to sanction the development budget Poudel said that the election to the local bodies must be done based on proportional representation. He said that legal amendments should be made to form a Council of 45 members and empower the Council to form its cabinet so that no hassles are experienced at the time of sanctioning the budget or taking major decisions.

Poudel said that the voters list must be kept up to date by verifying the names of the voters on the basis of the citizenship certificate or the record of births registered in the concerning town or village development committee.

He said that the demarcation of the electoral constituencies were not very scientific as the factors on which they had been demarcated ten years ago have witnessed changes. System must be devised to demarcate the constituencies based on population and geography together with other factors, Poudel said.

Poudel also pointed that a mechanism should be developed to ensure that the code of conduct is strictly followed at the time of elections. He said that the steps underway to open branch offices of the Election Commission in every district should be expedited.

On the complain made by the Election Commission that adequate security personnel are not available at the time of elections, Home Minister Govinda Raj Joshi said that the Home Ministry is just a facilitator and cannot dictate terms. The Election Commission must present the modalities through which the issue of security can be addressed thoroughly.

Joshi said that the existing provision of deciding about lawsuits on election related issues within a year must be changed. Necessary legal amendments must be made so that the court can decide on the lawsuits within six months, he said.

The participants also underlined the need for the Election Commission to establish regular contact with the line Ministries in order to pass the required legislation from the Parliament in order to hold free, fair and impartial elections.

Lawmaker Sitaula said that the sub committees were looking forward to organise seminars in different districts seeking the participation of the local representatives and Chief District Officers for collecting suggestions.