Social Studies Note for Grade X | Unit- 5 | Lesson- 7 Election Process-1

Unit: Five

Lesson: 7

Election Process

Qualification of the Candidate for the Members of Federal Parliament

The persons who meet the following requirements are considered eligible to be the candidate for the member of Federal Parliament:

1. Citizen of Nepal
2. Who has attained 25 years of age for the House of Representative and 35 years for the National Assembly
3. Who has not been punished for any criminal offence involving moral turpitude
4. Not ineligible under any law, and
5. Not holding an office of profit

For the members of Provincial Assembly, one should be a voter of the concerned province in addition to the above qualification.

Age Bar

Age bar of the candidate is fixed by the constitution. According to the Constitution of Nepal, the candidates should have attained the following age bars:

1. President/Vice-President: 45 years
2. Member of House of Representatives: 25 years
3. Member of National Assembly: 35 years
4. Member of Provincial Assembly: 25 years
5. Head/Deputy Head/Member of Rural Municipality and Mayor/Deputy Mayor/ Member of Municipality: 21 years
6. Member of Rural Municipal Assembly and Municipal Assembly: 21 years

Electoral Systems

Electoral system is a method of election which has its own rule of casting votes, counting the votes and giving final result. Various electoral systems are used in different countries. There are three electoral systems in practice at present in Nepal. They are First Past The Post Electoral System, Proportional Electoral System and Single Transferable Voting System.

1. First Past the Post Electoral System

   It is an electoral system in which the one who receives more votes than any other candidate gets elected. This system is used to elect a single candidate from an election constituency in which the voters cast their votes directly to their preferred candidate.

2. Proportional Electoral System

   It is an electoral system in which the whole country is considered a single constituency The voters cast their votes to their preferred political party and the percentage of the popular vote won by the party is converted into seats. For example: if of the voters support a particular political party, then roughly 40% of seats will be won by that party.

3. Single Transferable Voting System

   It is an electoral system in which surplus votes of candidates with higher priority shift to candidates with lesser priority in the same order the electorates marked their preferences. Election Commission first determines how many votes a candidate needs to win the election and if the candidate gets more than the required number of votes, then the surplus votes shift to candidates in top to down priority.

Manifesto

Manifesto is a public declaration of policy and aims, especially one issued before election by a political party or candidate.

Election Constituency

Election Constituency is a territorial subdivision for electing members to a legislative body. In the general election of 2048, 2051 and 2056 BS, the country was divided into 205 election constituencies whereas in the election of constitution assembly of 2064 and 2070 BS there were 240 election constituencies in Nepal. For the historical election of federal and parliament provincial assembly 2074, a total of 165 constituencies for the election of House of Representatives and 330 constituencies for the election of provincial assembly were maintained.