The Parliamentary State Affairs Committee formed an 11-memebr subcommittee on Thursday to finalise three election related bills.

The Bill to Amend and Integrate Laws related to the Election Commission (EC), Bill Related to Voter List, and Bill to Amend and Integrate Laws Related to Political Parties have been languishing at the State Affairs Committee for over two months. 

The subcommittee has got 15 days to carry out a detailed study of the three proposed bills and give suggestions to the committee. Members of the committee are Ananda Dhungana, Ishwari Neupane and Ram Krishna Yadav representing the Nepali Congress; Ganga Lal Tuladhar, Man Prasad Khatri and Rameshwar Phuyal from the CPN-UML; Rekha Sharma and Santa Kumar Darai from the CPN (Maoist Centre), Dharmendra Sah Teli from the Madhes-centric parties; Bikram Bahadur Thapa from the Rastriya Prajatantra Party and Prem Suwal from the Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party. The lawmakers are divided over maintaining the threshold of votes for representation, state funding to the political parties, minimum age of voters, allowing the EC to fix election dates and the number of signatures required to register a party. 

This has ended the dispute among lawmakers—whether to form a single sub-committee or three separate panels to look into three bills. Once the team presents its report in consensus among the members, the parliamentary committee is expected to submit it to the House for approval.

The Election Commission has said the lack of election-related laws is hampering its preparations for logistics and voter registration. “The preparations as per the proposed reform measures such as threshold of votes for representation, issue of proportional inclusive representation of women and other marginalised groups in the new local body structure should done in line with the new laws,” said Ila Sharma, a commissioner at the EC.

The EC has already clarified that the local level elections must be held by April-end to have any chance of holding provincial, national assembly and federal parliament elections before the tenure of current Parliament expires on January 21, 2018.

The EC says it will take at least 120 days to make necessary preparations for the local elections after the election date is announced with all necessary laws.