CJ-led Government – 02

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

The president has appointed the five election commissioners including the chief election commissioner following the recommendations of the Constitutional Council. Now, everybody needs to focus on the elections to a new CA. Some political parties have been opposing the Interim Election Council. They even said it was unconstitutional. Their cadres have been obstructing the staffs of the district election commissions to update voters’ lists in various districts. The strength of the opposition was insignificant but if they were to turn violent they could cause disruption of elections in some areas. All political parties are determined to hold elections as scheduled in June of this year despite the opposition of some parties. Some political parties believed that all political parties should participate in the elections otherwise validity of the elections would be questionable. The Election Commission has started off all work including the updating of voters’ lists in districts.

On Sunday, March 24, 2013, President Dr Ram Baran Yadav appointed five election commissioners including the chief election commissioner to the vacant positions at the election commission making it possible to work in full strength. Acting Chief Justice Damodar Prasad Sharma administered the oath of the office to Chief Election Commissioner Nilkanth Uprety in presence of the president, and the chairman of the Interim Election council (IEC) at the office of the president. Chief Election Commissioner in turn administered the oath of the offices of four other Election Commissioners such as Dolakh Bahadur Gurung, Dr Ayodhi Prasad Yadav, Rambhakta Prasad Biswokarma (Thakur), and Ila Sharma at the same event on March 24, 2013.

Except for Ila Sharma, and Rambhakta Prasad Biswokarma (Thakur), other three election commissioners including the chief election commissioner had served as election commissioners in the past. President Yadav had some doubts about the reappointment of the former commissioners. The office of the president wrote a letter to the Chairman of Constitutional Council Khil Raj Regmi asking whether the reappointment of the election commissioners would be pursuant to the Article 128 (3) & (7) or not. The Constitutional Council replied to the office of the president positively.

Khil Raj Regmi has been wearing at lest two hats: one as the Chairman of the IEC, and another as the Chairman of the Constitutional Council. His position as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal has been suspended for the period he would be the Chairman of IEC by the ruling of a bench of the Supreme Court of Nepal.

Chairman of IEC Khil Raj Regmi invited the newly appointed election commissioners including the chief election commissioner and the senior officials of the Election Commission to his office on March 25, 2013. The meeting was for finding out the progress made by the Election Commission to hold elections in June. The office of the Election Commission has already started off all technical work including the updating of the voters’ lists in various districts. However, the election commissioners were not in a hurry to set the date of the elections. They wanted to make sure what might hold them back from holding the elections. Setting date of holding elections was the job of the IEC, the Election Commission said.

After the appointment of the five election commissioners including the chief election commissioners, the Election Commission has the full strength to work for holding elections in June 2013. Ninety days were the minimum days the Election Commission needed to hold elections, the election commissioners said. They have just the number of day they needed to hold election in June.

The Election Commission was not without the challenges to hold elections. The Election Commission needed to update the voters’ lists in districts. Staffs of the office of the District Election Commissions have faced the wrath of the cadres of the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya. Those cadres have even looted the laptops of the staffs updating the voters’ lists in some districts. The government has decided to provide the staffs updating voters’ lists with the security including armed police force.

Major political parties have agreed on issuing voters’ cards based on the citizenship certificates. The Home Ministry has instructed the district administration to issue the citizenship certificates to the eligible persons smartly. Some Madheshi political leaders demanded voters’ cards be issued based on some other documents, too. Updating voters’ lists was one of the main tasks of the Election Commission to hold elections in June 2013.

Leader of CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya Dev Gurung told the cadres in his home district called Manang to obstruct any government activity in the district. He was determined to make the IEC and the Election Commission failure in holding elections. Deputy Chairman of CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya CP Gajurel said that his party would participate in the elections if the four parties such as UCPN-Maoist, NC, CPN-UML and UDMF annulled the 11-point agreement they had reached to form an Interim Election Commission presided over by the Chief Justice. Senior leader of CPN-UML Madhav Nepal said that if the chairman of IEC Khil Raj Regmi were to quit the office of the Chief Justice, the opposing political parties would participate in the elections.

The Ministry of Home has declared that the government would punish anybody obstructing the updating of the voters’ lists in districts. Leaders of the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya have unleashed the cadres to obstruct any election related activities in districts. The law enforcement personnel have not confronted the cadres, yet. It remains to be seen how the staffs of the district election commissions and the law enforcement officials would manage to run the business of the elections without confronting the Vaidhya-Maoist cadres.

Some people have been concerned with the weather condition in June. They said that the monsoon rains would obstruct the elections. The dry season continues in Nepal even in June. The possibility is brief rains and showers. Monsoon starts only in July. Sometimes, monsoon does not reach Nepal even in July. The most likely case is brief rains or showers but not monsoon-like continuous rains in June. Elections are possible in June. In any case, voters might need to take umbrellas to save from the hot sun.

Leaders of the 33 political parties including the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya at the meeting held at the headquarters of the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya in Kathmandu declared the 10-day protest against the elections, and the IEC set up by the four parties. They alleged the IEC was unconstitutional. The protest starts on March 29, 2013, and ends on April 7, 2013. They are going to shut down the entire country on April 7, 2013. The law enforcement people are weak. The cadres unleashed by the political parties ruled the whole country on the day of the shutdown declared by the political parties. They don’t care about the violation of the basic human rights to travel and do the businesses of the common folks without hindrance. Such leaders might one day face the International court in The Hague for human rights violation.

The protesting 33 political parties sound a large number but they are one-leader or two-leader parties except for the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya. Only the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya could make a difference in the protest. In the worst case, they could resort to violence, and even disrupt elections in some districts but that would be the end of that party. Nepalis have tolerated violence against them for quite a long time. They are no more willing to tolerate any violence perpetrated by any political party.

Polarization of political parties has started. Like-minded political parties have been preparing for going to polls jointly. The Federation of Democratic Republication Front presided over by the Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda has already declared that the members of the front would have a common manifesto, common posters, and pamphlets and so on. Major members of the front are the UCPN-Maoist and the UDMF. They are for federalism and federal states following the ethnic identity. President of NC Sushil Koirala has said that his parties would join hands with other democratic parties. Koirala has different definition of democracy. Rastriya Prajatantra Party of Pashupati Shumsher Rana and Rastriya Janashakti Party of Surya Bahadur Thapa are going to merge soon. Only the Rastriya Prajatantra Party of Kamal Thapa might be going alone. The CPN-UML has been claiming to be a largest party after the elections. We need to find some believers in it.

Some politicians said that the elections to a new CA would be the referendum on federalism. Political parties have been divided between the pro-and-anti federalism. UCPN-Maoist and UDMF have been the strong fighters for federalism. NC and CPN-UML have been defining federalism with the power at the center. NC, and CPN-UML have alienated the ethnic, and Madheshi people disregarding the demand for the ethnic based federal states. In these circumstances, NC and CPN-UML would have difficulty in convincing the ethnic and Madheshi people of voting for them.

Some of the ethnic groups and the Madheshi people have started off campaigning to defeat any ethnic or Madheshi candidate nominated by the NC and the CPN-UML at any constituency. Ethnic and Madheshi candidates of the NC and CPN-UML might face unimaginable challenges to win the elections. They have the choice of quitting their mother parties and join anyone of the parties that have been for the federalism and federal states.

Some political leaders realized that they needed to make sure the opposing political parties including the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya and Madheshi People’s Rights Forum-Nepal participated in the elections. The elections might not be valid without their participation, they said; the UCPN-Maoist, NC, CPN-UML and UDMF should bring them to the ‘High-level Political committee’, some political leaders said. Other leaders such as Vijaya Gacchedar of the Madheshi People’s Rights Forum-Democratic said that the elections would go ahead even without the participation of the opposing political parties. Other leaders said that the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya was not a formal political party, as it has not registered at the Election Commission; so it had no rights to say whether the elections were valid or not.

Speaking at the press conference held by the Nepal Press Union Kaski in Pokhara on March 26, 2013, President of NC Sushil Koirala said his party could not reach openly to people during the last constituent assembly elections, as the Maoists had terrorized people for ten years; and his party could not train its cadres how to run campaign in the past elections. Voters made the UCPN-Maoist largest party in the dissolved CA; consequently, the country became weaker and the CA could not promulgate a new constitution; the nation and democracy would be strong only if the people made the NC a largest party, said President of NC Koirala according to the news posted on ‘gorkhapatraonline.com’ on March 27, 2013.

Opening the International Women Conference held by All Nepal Women Association in Kathmandu on March 25, 2013, Chairman of CPN-UML Jhalanath Khanal said that his party would get majority in the upcoming CA election as it had clear thoughts and ideology, and he urged all voters to cast their votes for his party if a new constitution were to craft. Chairman Khanal said that if the new CA were to be the one we had in the past, we could not write a constitution again, according to the news posted on ‘gorkhapatraonline.com’ on March 26, 2013.

March 30, 2013