The Election Commission has asked the government to cancel all projects under the Constituency Infrastructure Special Programme (CISP) and Constituency Development Programme (CDP), arguing that retired lawmakers cannot carry on the programme meant for incumbent lawmakers.

A meeting of the commission on Sunday directed the respective government agencies to stop the allocation of budget under the two programmes, with the funds being released to the projects selected by retired parliamentarians. 

A total of Rs 10 billion has been allocated under the two programmes, where Rs30 million has been released for each constituency to implement projects under the CISP and Rs5 million each to lawmakers to implement projects under the CDP. 

“As election code of conduct bars from carrying out any activities that could influence the voters we have directed the government to stop the projects until the completion of the elections,” said Election Commissioner Sudheer Shah. 

The poll code, which came into force on August 30, prevents the government from introducing and implementing new projects. The EC has decided to direct the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development, 77 offices of District Treasury Office and District Coordination Committees to halt works on all projects. 

As the term of the Legislature-Parliament has ended as per Article 296 (1) of the Constitution of Nepal, the retired lawmakers cannot implement the programmes meant for the incumbent parliamentarians, the EC said. The House came to an end on October 14, a day prior to submission of the nominees for the proportional representation system.

Ignoring the code of conduct, the government had last month asked lawmakers to submit projects to be implemented under the two programmes by October 17. 

There were earlier concerns that such projects could give the incumbent lawmakers  “unfair” advantage over their rival candidates during the upcoming federal and provincial elections as they could showcase the projects to influence voters.