Less than two weeks before submitting the closed lists of candidates for proportional representation election, the government is working to revise the election law to ensure a fair representation of various castes and communities in the House of Representatives.

After an agreement between the government and the Election Commission to review the representation of the respective community based on the population size as per the latest census, a six-member panel was constituted on December 11 for a study.

The panel led by Subash Bhattarai, a joint secretary at the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, has submitted the report to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Its report suggests there have been slight changes in the composition of different caste groups and communities since the last elections.

“As the line agency, the home ministry is taking necessary steps to implement our suggestions,” said Bhattarai.

Allocation of seats to the different groups in ratio to the population share from the last 2021 census needs an update in the current election laws.

Schedule 1 of the Act Relating to the Election of Members of the House of Representatives has specified the share of the different groups based on the population size as per the 2011 census.

The detailed census report from 2021 was not ready by the time previous elections were held in November 2022, prompting the government to follow the report of the decade-old census.

Even before the Bhattarai-led panel was formed, the Central Bureau of Statistics had already forwarded the detailed data on cluster-wise population to the home ministry.

The share of the Khas-Arya cluster, which was 31.2 percent as per the 2011 national census, declined to 30.3 percent, while there has been a slight decline in the share of the indigenous nationalities cluster from 28.7 to 28.2 percent.

Dalit and Tharu are the other clusters that have seen a decrease in the share of the population. The share of Dalits has gone down to 13.4 percent from 13.8 percent, and that of Tharus to 6.5 percent from 6.6 percent.

However, the share of Madheshis has gone up by nearly one percent to 16.2 percent from 15.3 percent. Similarly, Muslim’s share has increased from 4.4 percent to 4.9 percent.

The schedule of the Act needs to be amended to adjust the share of representation of the different groups as per their population size.

The Constitution of Nepal and different election laws envision proportional representation. There will be a slight decline in the representation of the Khas-Arya and indigenous/janajati communities if the representation is done based on the latest census.

Officials at the commission say they act as per the law. The government should either opt for amending Schedule 1 of the Act by clearly specifying the percentage of inclusive groups based on the 2021 census, or it should make a clear decision if it intends to continue using figures from the 2011 census, they say.

“We don't have a long window as the deadline to submit the closed list of candidates under the proportional representation category is less than two weeks away,” said Yagya Bhattarai, chief of the legal department at the commission. “The government might be working on its plan.”

As the House of Representatives remains dissolved, the Act needs to be revised through an ordinance. The President, on the government's recommendation, issues the ordinance.

As per the election schedule, the parties contesting the March 5 polls must submit their closed list on December 29 and 30. The final closed list will be published on January 3.

While 114 parties are contesting under the first-past-the-post category, 100 parties, including those that have applied to contest under the single election symbol, have been registered for the proportional representation system.