A minor scuffle ensued after a dispute over the election to pick official trade union of civil servants at the Ministry of General Administration in Singha Durbar, Kathmandu on Monday.

The clash ensued when police tried to open the padlock the office of election commissioner at the Ministry. Members of a disgruntled trade union had padlocked the office.

Four trade unions have resorted to protest against the threshold provision for the representation in official trade union.  They have been demanding that the provision requiring 20 percent votes should be removed and the election should be proportional and inclusive.

CPN-UML aligned Nepal National Civil Servants’ Organisation, CPN-Maoist aligned National Civil Servants’ Organisation and Madhesi Morcha closer Nepal Madhes Civil servants Forum, and the union of civil servant drivers are among the disgruntled trade unions.

However, three major civil servants’ union are in favour of the election and have started their publicity campaign.

Spokesperson of the four trade unions, Prabhas Sah, said that they were compelled to protest for the violation of system adopted by government for the civil servants’ trade union election. “How could 20 percent threshold be kept in the election participated by 80,000 people while, there is no threshold in the election where 20 million are concerned?” question Sah, adding, “We are forced to protest as the elections were being conducted in collusion of a few civil servants organisations.”

However, the trade unions supporting elections said the opportunity for electing the official trade union should not be pushed further under various pretexts.