Issuing a press release, the UDMF has asked the government to immediately halt the voter registration process as well as the government´s plan to introduce the National Identity Card (NID). [break]
"Conducting the voter registration process only on the basis of citizenship certificates is against the Madhesi people. We will obstruct it in the field from May 2 if our demand goes unheard," reads the press release issued by the UMDF and signed by Bijaya Kumar Gachachhadar, Chairman of Madhesi People´s Rights Forum (MPRF), Mahanta Thakur, Chairman of Terai-Madhes Democratic Party, and Rajendra Mahato, Chairman of Sadbhabana Party.
"We have already drawn the attention of Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal to halt the process," states the decision.
The UDMF has also termed the voter registration process an ´unconstitutional´ move.
"The citizenship problems are yet to be resolved. The court rulings are biased. Many Madhesi people are still deprived of citizenship," said Jitendra Sonal, joint-general secretary of the Tarai Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP), adding, "Thus the voter registration process must be halted at any cost."
In the past also, the Madhes-based parties had obstructed the EC´s program in various parts of the country. The process, which was obstructed for seven months following objection by Madhes-based parties, resumed recently after the apex court verdict, issued on February 9, asked the EC to collect the new electoral roll only on the basis of citizenship. And the EC expedited the voter registartion process accordingly.
"We have been conducting the voter registration process as per the legal provisions," said Neel Kantha Uprety, officiating chief election commissioner, adding, "We won´t halt the process since we cannot defy a Supreme Court´s verdict."
Uprety, however, said the EC can resolve administrative, financial and technical problems related to the registration process.
Madhes-based parties´ demand not to make citizenship a mandatory document for voter registration is against the constution, he said. Article 63 (7) of the Interim Constitution reads, "For the purpose of electing the Constituent Assembly, every citizen of Nepal who has attained the age of eighteen years on or before 15 December 2007 shall be entitled to vote, as provided in law".
Constitutional lawyer Madhav Basnet says the voting right is the soverign right of only citizens of the country.
The citizenship row is nothing new in Nepal and the Madhes parties routinely claim that many Nepalis, especially in the southern plains, have been denied their citizenship right.
Following the Madhes movement in 2007, the then government introduced the New Act and Regulations on Citizenship and launched a special door-to-door campaign to distribute citizenship certificates to all elegible Nepalis. According to data at the citizenship section at the Home Ministry, about 2.6 million citizenship certificates were distributed in 2007 after relaxation of the citizenship laws.
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