Nepali Central Congress Member (NC) Umesh Shrestha has filed an application with the Election Commission demanding that he be declared elected from the Chitwan-2 House of Representatives (HoR) constituency.
He came to the Election Commission on Sunday demanding that he be elected after Rastriya Swatantra party chairman Rabi Lamichhane, who was elected from the constituency, was found ineligible to become a lawmaker by the Supreme Court (SC) in its verdict on the Lamichhane citizenship controversy.
Shrestha has pointed out that he suffered an injustice as the Election Commission did not rule on the complaints filed about Lamichhane’s ineligibility before the November 20, 2022 elections. the chose. Two were housed in Kathmandu. No decision was made on them. We have both suffered injustice for lack of a timely decision,” Shrestha said.
“Rabbi Lamichhane would not have become a candidate if a decision had been made then. He now he has to go to ‘base level’ after becoming deputy prime minister. I too have suffered injustice. Taxpayers’ money would not have been spent either if the decision on his candidacy had been made earlier.
He added that he moved the Electoral Commission to set a precedent. “Such an incident has not occurred so far. It is also necessary to interpret the Constitution. This is a special situation where a non-citizen, who cannot participate in the elections, participated and won the elections,” he explained. “The Electoral Commission entertained itself in making a decision. The entire process has now been revoked along with Lamichhane’s citizenship. I have come to fight for a precedent so that others do not suffer this”.
However, the Election Commission has been saying that by-elections should be held in Chitwan-2. “What the Election Commission is required to do according to the law is to issue a notice regarding the revocation of the post as per the SC verdict,” Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dinesh Thapaliya told Setopati. “The Secretariat of Parliament then informs about the vacancy. We will have by-elections when the information arrives. The law says so.”
He has stressed that there is no law that specifies that the position must be transferred to another person when it becomes vacant. “The party can designate another person from the list if they are a deputy elected by the electoral system of Proportional Representation (RP). But it is over once the election is completed in the First-Past-The-Post electoral system. There is no law that says that the second or the third is chosen. The house is currently on. He can interpret ”.
Lamichhane was elected from Chitwan-2 with 49,300 votes while Shrestha finished in second place with 14,988 votes.
