Writ against EC, Big III for failing to include disabled candidate

0

KATHMANDU, NOV 08 - The National Federation of Disabled Nepal (NFDN) filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court on Thursday against the Election Commission and the three major parties—UCPN (Maoist), CPN-UML and Nepali congress—for failing to include a proportional number of people with disabilities as candidates in the upcoming Constituent Assembly election.

The last CA had two representatives from the disabled community as its members, Indra Maya Gurung from the then CPN-Maoist as one of the 26 nominated by the Cabinet and Raghav Bir Joshi from Nepal Communist Party (Samyukta) elected through the proportional system.

Joshi, who is deaf, is now contesting the election through the first-past-the-post system from Lalitpur-2. Three other people with disabilities, Bharat Mani Bhatta (with low vision, Rastriya Prajatantra Party), Birendra Raj Sharma Pokharel (blind, UML) and Dev Kumari Parajuli (physically challenged, Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal) are candidates in the proportional system.

The Election Commission is yet to confirm the exact number of disabled candidates in the November 19 election, but Sudharshan Subedi, chairman of the NFDN, said the number is less than 2 percent of the total population that the disabled community represents.

"We need disabled people in the CA to protect the rights of the disabled as one of the fundamental rights," said Subedi, who filed the petition on behalf of the federation.

"Not only have disabled people been at the forefront of the 2006 revolution for republic, many Nepalis were left disabled during the revolution," reads the petition.

In the petition, the federation demands that the EC send edicts to all parties (not just the three major parties) to ensure the candidacy of the disabled at at least five percent in the upcoming and any other future elections. The NFDN also wants disabled people to be nominated by the Cabinet and demands that the representation be ensured at all costs, either by amending the existing regulations or by removing legal hurdles.