Kathmandu, June 27 (RSS):A session of the House of Representatives (HoR) had to be postponed for 15 minutes today following the protest of the major opposition CPN (UML) and the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP). Once the meeting convened, RSP lawmakers stood from their respective seats, demanding repeal of the government announcement to scrap the District Election Offices. Following the gesture of the oppositions, Speaker Devraj Ghimire granted time to RSP lawmaker Rabi Lamichhane to air his views. “Our opinions against the proposal to merge the district-level election offices into the District Administration Office remained unaddressed,” he said, urging the government to realise its ‘mistake’ and move back from the decision. “Otherwise we will be compelled to not allow the House business run.” The government had, through the budget for the fiscal year 2023-24, proposed to merge the District Election Office in the respective District Administration Offices, to the annoyance of various political parties including the UML and the RSP. As the oppositions said, they would continue the House obstruction until they got a clear reply about the matter from the Finance Minister. In response, the Speaker said the Finance Minister Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat is scheduled to address the concerns over the matters in the House today. After that, lawmakers of the main opposition party, CPN (UML) also supported the RSP’s protest. Surya Bahadur Thapa of the CPN (UML) said the proposal of dissolving the District Election Office and District Statistics Office was against fair election and the main sentiment of democracy. Urging not to put District Election Office under the shadow of the District Administration Office, he clarified that other house business could not move ahead until the decision was corrected. Similarly, RSP Chairperson Rabi Lamichhane said there would be doubt on impartiality of the election while bringing the jurisdiction of the constitutional commission under the Office of the Chief District Officer, adding this is the sensitive matter. He further said vague response of the Finance Minister on this sensitive issue would not be acceptable to them. Speaker Ghimire urged them to resume the meeting as Finance Minister is scheduled to respond to the queries, but the lawmakers of the opposition parties continued their protest. Nepali Congress Chief Whip Ramesh Lekhak mentioned that an all-party meeting held at the Election Commission on the issue of scrapping the District Election Office has agreed to run the office in the previous status and urged the opposition lawmakers not to obstruct House business. Presenting a proposal of scrapping constitutional commission in the name of maintaining financial austerity was wrong, CPN (UML)’s Chief Whip Padam Giri said, blamed the government of including the proposal in the budget with a plan not to conduct election in a fair way. The meeting was postponed for 15 minutes following protest of opposition parties. —