EC law under deliberation
The Election Commission draft bill is being deliberated by the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) today.
Here are key points.
This is one of the four organic laws required by the new Constitution in preparation for the next election. The others being the laws on political parties, election of MPs, and appointment of senators.
Changes have been made to the original version written by the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC), covering 18 clauses of the bill.
Those revisions were suggested by the NLA’s vetting committee.
The revised draft requires that the five current EC members need to vacate their seats as soon as the new law on the EC takes effect. (They will assume the caretaker roles until the new set of EC members enters the office.)
The new EC members will be nominated by the selection committee within 60 days.
If approved, the draft will be submitted to the Constitutional Court, the EC, and the CDC to determine as to whether it is in line with the spirit of the new Constitution. This process will take 15 days.
But if it goes against the charter’s spirit, a joint committee will be set up with 11 members from the EC, Constitutional Court, NLA and vetting committee in order to settle the differences. However, observers said the likelihood for such a joint panel was very low.
