CP Mainali and Eknath Dhakal made wrong claims while opposing electoral threshold

Sujit Mainali / March 23, 2017

Opposing the imposition of a three-percent electoral threshold by parliament, Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist) Chairman CP Mainali speaking at the parliament meeting on March 23 said the following:

“Electoral threshold, which is not in practice anywhere else, has been introduced here.”

South Asia Check has examined whether this statement is correct or not.

Many countries have electoral thresholds. For instance, in Turkey there is a 10 percent threshold to enter parliament.

Therefore, Mainali’s statement is not correct.

Addressing the same meeting of parliament, Ekanath Dhakal, the chairman of Nepal Pariwar Dal, said the following:

“A petition had been filed at the constitutional court in Germany against electoral threshold, and the court ordered against having any kind of electoral threshold.”

South Asia Check has examined this statement also.

In Germany, there used to be a five percent threshold in the election of European Parliament. In 2013, it was reduced to three percent.

In 2013, small parties in Germany filed a petition at the Constitutional Court against electoral threshold provision in the election of European Parliament. In 2014, the court declared the European Parliament’s threshold provision as unconstitutional and scrapped it. The judges had argued that each German voter must have the same right to determine the composition of the European Parliament.

European Parliament cannot form or topple the government in Germany. German national election that elects parliamentarians in Germany still has an electoral threshold of five percent.

Therefore Dhakal’s statement is also incorrect.

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