CJ-led Government-04

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

The current government has been effectively the rubber stamp of the four major political parties such as UCPN-Maoist, NC, CPN-UML and UDMF. Then, the head of state President Dr Ram Baran Yadav in turn became the rubber stamp, as he put the seal of assent on anything recommended by the government following the consensus of the four major parties. Chairman of the Interim Election Council of Ministers (IECM), and election commissioners including the chief election commissioner have been attending one function after another and delivering speeches rather than working for setting the election date. The CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya in the name of 33 political parties has been opposing anything the four parties have been doing stating those four parties have been ignoring other political parties; and whatever the four parties are doing without the participation of all political parties are not legitimate. So, the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya and other 32 parties together want an all-party-round-table meeting of all political parties represented in the dissolved constituent Assembly (CA), and then form an all-party government to hold the elections to a new CA.

The four political parties reached the 11-point agreement on the night of March 13, 2013 to form a non-political-11-member Interim Election Council of Ministers (IECM) presided over by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal; other ten members of the council would be the retired special-class state employees. They also agreed on the ‘Removing Constitutional Hurdles Bill’ to pave the way for forming such a council and then holding elections to a new CA, and to set up a High Level Political Committee’ (HLPC) to guide the IECM.

HLPC has done its job almost making the IECM a rubber stamp. The IECM appointed the eight ministers following the suggestions of the HLPC. Then, the IECM also recommend the five election commissioners including the Chief Election Commissioner to the president to appoint them following the suggestion of the HLPC. Appointing to the vacancies at other constitutional bodies had been stalled after the name of controversial former Chief Secretary Lokman Singh Karki for an appointment to the Chairman of Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority (CIAA) leaked to the press, and political cadres opposed appointing such a controversial man that had played a significant role in attempting to suppress the people’s movement in 2006.

Lokman Singh Karki was a rich man. He must have offered a lot of money to the political parties to get an appointment to the Chairman of CIAA. Former Chief Secretary Karki believed that securing the office of Chairman of the CIAA would cleansed him of his past sins. He was ready to pay the price for his past sins. So, the HLPC has suggested the IECM for appointing him to the chairman of CIAA despite his past controversial performances as the Chief Secretary to the Council of Ministers. Former Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai even said that Lokman Singh Karki was a man of great experience, so it was appropriate to appoint him to the chairman of CIAA.

In their 11-point agreement, the four parties also said that the coalition government of UCPN-Maoist and UDMF headed by Dr Baburam Bhattarai would prepare a ‘Removing Constitutional Hurdles Bill’ that included amendments to 25 articles of the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 to pave the way for appointing the Chief Justice to the chairman of IECM, and then hold elections to a new CA. The 11-point agreement has stated all the amendments to the Interim Constitution done for the sake of elections would be invalid after the completion of the elections.

Following the recommendations made by the government to amend the 25 articles of the Interim Constitution, and then appoint the Chief Justice to the office of the Chairman of the IECM, President Yadav administered the oath of office of the chairman of the IECM to him in presence of the leaders of the four political parties, and heads of the diplomatic missions in Kathmandu on March 14, 2013. Then, the newly appointed chairman Khil Raj Regmi administered the oath of office to two ministers at the same event. A few days later, Chairman Regmi appointed another eight retired-special-class state employees to the members of the council.

The leaders of the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya had picketed the office of the president while the sworn-in ceremony of the newly appointed chairman of the IECM and of its two members was going on at the presidential building on March 14, 2013. They chanted slogans that the amendments to the 25 articles of the Interim Constitution was unconstitutional; so, the IECM formed following the unconstitutional means has no legitimacy to hold elections to a new CA. They imposed the shutdown of the entire country from noon to 5:00 pm on March 14, 2013 as the protest against the unconstitutional actions of the president.

Chairman of CPN-Maoist Vaidhya said that not only his party would not participate in the elections to a new CA to be held by the illegitimate IECM but also would stop the Election Commission (EC), and the IECM from holding the elections. Leaders of the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya did not recognize the IECM as the government saying it was unconstitutional, and they had been demanding to dissolve it immediately.

The IECM set up three-member Constitutional Council (CC). Chairman of the IECM was the chairman and two ministers were its members. It was for filing out the vacancies of the political appointees at the constitutional bodies. Almost all constitutional bodies had been dysfunctional in absence of the political appointees. So, the four parties had reached an understanding to fill out all the vacant positions at the constitutional bodies.

Following the suggestions of the HLPC of the four parties, the CC recommended the president to appoint five election commissioners including the Chief Election Commission to hold elections to a new CA. Three of the five elections commissioners had been the former election commissioners. Thus, not only the head of state and IECM became the rubber stamp of the HLPC but also the CC.

Following the appointment of five election commissioners including the Chief Election Commissioner, the EC immediately started off the updating of the voters’ lists at the districts. Officials of the district election commissions went to villages with laptops and previous voters’ lists to update the voters’ lists based on the citizenship certificates. Nepalis get citizenship certificates at 16 whereas they could vote only at 18. They have to complete 18 years of age on the day of the elections.

Immediately, the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya unleashed its cadres to stop the voters’ lists. The cadres looted the laptops and documents. In some cases, they smashed laptops, and burnt down the documents. In other cases, they took the control of the officials updating voters’ lists.

Leaders of the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya went to the EC, and submitted a memo demanding to immediately stop all-election-related activities. One of the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya Dev Gurung told the Chief Election Commissioner that if the EC were not to stop the election-related activities, the EC would be accountable to any consequence that might result from the activities.

The EC suspended the updating of the voters’ lists at the villages. It had two reasons: one was clearly of the threatening of the leaders of the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya, another the citizenship certificate. Millions of Nepalis have to have citizenship certificates before getting the voters’ cards. The Home Ministry had to distribute citizenship certificates to eligible Nepalis. To this end, the Home Ministry authorized the secretariat of the peace fund to disburse more than Rs 90 billions to run the campaigns of distributing citizenship certificates.

Chairman of Madheshi People’s Rights Forum-Nepal Upendra Yadav had put forward certain conditions for participating in the elections. He demanded that the updating of the voters’ lists should be not only based on the citizenship certificates but also based on the certificates of tenants, and on the previous voters’ lists; delineation of constituencies should be done based on the population census of the 2010; the four parties should not reduce the number of representatives to the CA; and Chairman of the IECM should quit one of the offices: either the office of the Chief Justice or of the chairman of the IECM. He said that his party would participate in the elections if all these mistakes were corrected.

Leaders of the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya said that they did not have any constitutional means to oppose the unconstitutional actions of the president. So, they have to resort to the shutdown of the country and stop the updating of the voters’ list forcibly. They labeled the issue of ‘Removing Constitutional Hurdles Ordinance,’ and subsequent appointment of the Chief Justice to the Chairman of IECM as unconstitutional.

Other political parties questioned the legitimacy of the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya. It was a breakaway party of the UCPN-Maoist. Its leaders claimed that it had 91 members of the dissolved CA. The UCPN-Maoist had 240 members in the dissolved CA of 601 members. However, leaders of the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya had not register it at the EC to make it an official party. We had another CPN-Maoist headed by Matrika Yadav. It also was a splinter of the UCPN-Maoist. To identify the CPN-Maoist headed by Chairman Mohan Vaidhya, I added Vaidhya to CPN-Maoist of Vaidhya.

The CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya shut down the movement of vehicles and markets across the country except for Surunga market on Sunday April 7, 2013 protesting against the unconstitutional government headed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal. Cadres unleashed by the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya enforced shutdown across the country except for one place. The cadres burnt down some vehicles that had defied the order of the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya not to run on this day. However, the cadres had had hard time to save their lives at Surunga market. Locals of the Surunga market had declared the market free from the shutdown called by any party. The locals with their homemade weapons not only stood against the cadres coming to enforce the shutdown but also chased after them.

Probably, other market towns might learn from the people of Surunga. They might form a front and confront the cadres coming to shut down their markets. Then, political parties would have difficulty in indulging in the illegal means of shutting down the markets and vehicular traffic denying the fundamental human rights of 30 million people to travel without hindrance. The Surunga case was the great victory of the people and the defeat of the political party committing violence against the people.

The HLPC of the four major political parties set up a committee to talk to the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya leaders. The IECM also formed a team to talk to the Vaidhya Maoists. Leaders of the CPN-Maoist refused to talk to the team of the IECM stating the IECM was unconstitutional and they were not going to talk to such an illegitimate council. The Vaidhya Maoists told the four parties that first tear off the 11-point agreement then only they would talk to.

The Vaidhya Maoists said that they were ready to talk to the head of state President Dr Ram Baran Yadav but with certain conditions. They said that the president should annulled his unconstitutional actions of the ‘Removing Constitutional Hurdles Ordinance’ making amendments to the 25 articles of the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007, and then appointing the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal to the Chairman of IECM. The president had not responded to the offer of the Vaidhya Maoists.

Deputy Chairman of CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya CP Gajurel said that his party was not for talking to the four-party syndicate, as it was unconstitutional but was ready to talk to the individual party individually. None of the four major political parties had responded to the deputy chairman of CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya, yet.

Speaking at one event recently, Chairman of Terai Madhesh Democratic Party Mahant Thakur said that the IECM would lose its legitimacy if it were not to hold the elections on June 21, 2013. This condition was included in the ‘Removing Constitutional Hurdles Ordinance’ said Chairman Thakur. Nobody reacted to this.

After a few days, Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda said almost the same thing provoking string reactions from NC ad CPN-UML leaders. Chairman Prachanda said that if the IECM were not to hold elections in June then it would not be able to hold in November, too. Leaders of NC and CPN-UML vigorously reacted to it. They said that the UCPN-Maoist was not for holding elections at all. Chairman of CPN-UML even went on saying that the UCPN-Maoist would be doomed in the elections. President of NC said that if his party were to lose the elections then the country would be doomed. I don’t know how many people believed in the speaking out of the minds of the politically unstable politicians.

Cadres of the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya had planted the flag of the party on the property belonged to the Chairman of the IECM, and his relatives and the friends, and declared the properties were seized. In doing so, probably, the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya wanted to take the country to the status of conflict between the state and the Vaidhya-Maoists but the chairman of IECM had not reacted to the capture of his property. Deputy chairman of CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya CP Gajurel said that his party was not for taking up arms again and going back to jungles to fight against the state but they would continue to fight.

Most of the property captured by the Maoists during the 10-year long war has not been returned to the legitimate owners. The Vaidhya-Maoists have stopped the occupants of the property from returning back to the legitimate owners whereas the UCPN-Maoist has been for turning over the property back to the owners. Even in the 11-point agreement the four major parties have mentioned that the UCPN-Maoist would cooperate on returning the property seized during the conflict.

Four major political parties had installed Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi as the Chairman of IECM, and then five election commissioners including the Chief Election Commissioners were appointed to the vacant positions at the EC to hold elections in June. If you read a state-run newspaper ‘gorkhapatra’ you would find that these guys have been attending one event after another and launching a new book and so on that were not concerned with the holding of elections to a new CA. if they spent most of the time on attending the useless events then surely they would not have time to set the election date, and for election-related tasks. These guys have been behaving as if they were the politicians making speeches.

We want them to work entirely for holding elections not for anything otherwise they have no rights to collect remuneration entitled by their offices. Their salaries and all the benefits entitled by their positions had been paid by the taxpayers’ money. They should be accountable to the taxpayers and hold elections as scheduled rather than straying in the business not related to their duties. They were supposed to announce the election date immediately after they took office but it had been almost a month since Mr. Regmi took office on March 14, 2014, the election date had not bee announced, yet. Are these guys for collecting salaries and enjoying benefits entitled by virtue of their positions? If so, they would be disgraced soon.

April 12, 2013