CJ-led Government-28

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

Political parties have been preparing for the elections. They have been busy with the nominations of candidates for the seats in a new Constituent Assembly (CA), and with the writing of their political manifestos. At the same time, polarization of political parties, leaders and cadres has been intensified. Some political parties have been pulling the like-minded leaders and cadres. Other political parties have been strengthening their position on the upcoming elections. The so-called 33-party front headed by the CPN-Maoist has been heading to not only boycotting the elections but also disrupting the elections. The government has secured the approval of the president for using the Nepal Army for the security in the elections.

All the political parties have the problem of nominating the correct leaders satisfying all the leaders and the cadres. Not getting the nominations, dissatisfied leaders openly spoke out against the top leaders of their party. Some leaders left the mother party to join another party just to get the nominations. Others have made their own groups to put pressure on the top leaders.

UCPN-Maoist has been pulling the like-minded political leaders and cadres from different political parties including its splinter party CPN-Maoist. Some leaders of the CPN-Maoist, and of other Madheshi political parties joined the UCPN-Maoist. It has made the UCPN-Maoist leaders happy but challenging to manage the party. Some of the leaders and cadres of the UCPN-Maoist directly challenged the top leaders for giving the high positions to the newly joining leaders, bypassing the leaders and cadres that had sacrificed everything for fighting the 10-year people’s war. They wanted their share in the party leadership.

However, in the name of consolidating the party and strengthening its position on the upcoming elections to a new CA, UCPN-Maoist leaders have been giving a special attention to the leaders particularly of the Madheshi origin that have recently joined the party. UCPN-Maoist leaders have been even boasting that they have overwhelming support in the Madhesh-terai areas. In absence of any credible opinion polls, nobody could say whether the claim made by the UCPN-Maoist for such a support is really a truth or a half-truth or no truth at all.

The second largest political party NC also has been facing the problem of making nominations of candidates to the seats of a new CA. The party leadership has been openly divided into the two camps: the party president Sushil Koirala heads one camp, senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba heads another. Leaders and cadres of both camps surely want the most favorable constituencies for fighting the elections.

The recent declaration of the NC leadership of the leaders and the cadres getting the nominations for the elections to a new CA would not be eligible for nominations for the local elections has caused confusions among the potential candidates.  Most of the district leaders that have come with the recommendations for their nominations have lost in confusion of not knowing what to do next. Certainly, they would not have a chance to get elected at the local level elections if they lost the elections to a new CA. The central leaders believe that such a condition would do justice to the district-level party leaders and cadres, as the leaders and cadres not having nominations for the elections to a new CA would at least get chance of getting nominations for the local elections.

The third largest party CPN-UML has the most problem of giving nominations to its party leaders and cadres. The party is divided into three major leaderships such as the leadership of Party Chairman Jhalanath Khanal, then of senor leader Madhav Nepal, and another leader KP Oli. All the three leaders are contenders for the party’s top leadership.

In the past, Chairman Khanal has been very weak. He could not lead the party firmly as the result he had to give the way to senior leader Madhav Nepal to be the prime minister of the coalition government despite the fact that Madhav Nepal lost the elections to the past CA in the two constituencies. KP Oli has been the rival to Khanal, and he is still the rival to Khanal. He had claimed the party leadership but he could not garner sufficient support for it in the elections to a chairman of the party. KP Oli also had lost the elections to the past CA.

Most of other lower level leaders such as Bamdev Gautam, Ishower Pokharel, Shanker Pokharel, and Bhim Rawal also claimed to have a say in the nominations of candidates for the elections to a new CA. Among these second strata leaders, only Bhim Rawal was elected to the member of the past CA. However, these not-elected leaders have been dominating the CPN-UML. Most of them claimed without basis that their party would get two-thirds majority in the elections to a new CA. Such unrealistic claims in the past had led the CPN-UML to the third position.

Most of these CPN-UML leaders took pleasure in finding out the mistakes of other leaders, and then harshly criticizing other leaders overlooking their own faults. They have been dreaming in getting back the glory of their party that it had in the second parliamentary elections held in 1994. It won the highest number of the parliamentary seats but not enough for forming a government. The infightings in the NC had made the CPN-UML possible to win so many seats in the parliament rather than the merits the CPN-UML had earned. Majority of the voters in the Kathmandu Valley voted for the CPN-UML believing its leaders would surely perform well in governance. The performances of the CPN-UML had disappointed the voters have been demonstrated by the results of the elections to the first CA. CPN-UML leaders would hardly regain their lost credibility in the coming elections to a second CA.

The Madheshi political parties have a loose coalition front called United Madheshi Democratic Front (UDMF) of all Madheshi political parties. The front had performed pretty well to negotiate with other political parties on sharing the power in governance. Most of the leaders had got the ministerial portfolios that gave them the prestige and resources for the future prestige, too. Even now, the UDMF has been working as an equal partner in the four-party political mechanism. However, the UDMF has not shown any sign of it making preparations for the elections to a new CA. Some leaders have been trying to strengthen the bond of the coalition partners of the UDMF but others have been weakening it.

Polarization of the Madheshi parties has been taking place. It has been hard to count the number of splits the Madheshi parties have made. They breed into new parties as rabbits. Consequentially, major Madheshi political parties such as the Nepal Sadbhavana Party, Madheshi People’s Rights Forum, and Terai Madheshi Democratic Party have lost their significance. Keeping the track of how many political parties have been formed by the names of these three political parties has been a challenging task. Now, the question is whether the Madheshi Political parties would be able to come to limelight again after the elections to a new CA.

Another political party claimed to be the fourth largest party based on the number of the members of the dissolved CA has been the CPN-Maoist split away from the UCPN-Maoist about a year ago. Its leaders have claimed that it has more than 90 members of the dissolved CA slightly higher than the total strength of the UDMF. The claim would have been valid if they had formed a party and got endorsed by the then Chairman of the CA before it got dissolved. However, it is a significant party. It would remain a major party if it were to keep all the leaders and cadres intact. Recently, more than 50 leaders and cadres of the CPN-Maoist quit the party for returning back to the mother party UCPN-Maoist. They have charged the chairman of CPN-Maoist Mohan Vaidhya with opting to join hands with the supporters of the monarchy; so its leaders and cadres returned to the mother party UCPN-Maoist. Thus, the significance of the CPN-Maoist has been considerably reduced.

Leaders of the CPN-Maoist have been claiming that they led the 33-party front. However, the 33-number is not so great as the 32 political parties are not better than 32 individuals. Even the names of most of the political parties in the 33-party front are not commonly known. Only the CPN-Maoist is a significant party.

Leaders of the CPN-Maoist have taken their party to such an extreme that it has reached the point of no return to take part in the elections to a new CA forcing them to boycott the elections and to make attempts on disrupting the elections. In the name of the 33-party front, they held a mass rally at Tundikhel in Kathmandu on Monday, September 23, 2013 to protest against holding the elections to a new CA. Speaking at the rally, Chairman of CPN-Maoist Mohan Vaidhya said that the elections to a new CA would not be held even if the elections were held the new CA would not be able to craft a people’s constitution. Chairman Vaidhya labeled the four-party political mechanism as a four-party syndicate, and charged it with working on holding the elections to a new CA under the foreign influence.

The 33-party front had a plan on shutting down the businesses of the common folks and traffics on the roads on September 25, and 26, 2013 in protest against holding the elections to a new CA. However, the front chose to withdraw the planned shutdowns. They could shut down the businesses of the common people and the traffic on the roads provoking the wrath of the common folks. They would face more and more challenges from the common folks if they were to indulge in the shutdowns.

The CPN-Maoist and its 33-party front would not be able to effectively enforce the shutdowns in the face of the greatest Hindu festival called Dasain. Nepalis would be doing many things for Dasain. Most of the people are going back to their homes to celebrate the festival among the family members. Many more would be working hard to earn extra money for the Dasain festival. If the CPN-Maoist in the name of the 33-party front were to impose shutdowns then they might need to confront with the common folks. After 15 days of the Dasain festival, Nepalis have another festival called ‘Tihar’ in the first week of November. The CPN-Maoist and its 33-prty front leaders and cadres also must be celebrating these two festivals. So, they would not have much time to stop the Election Commission holding the elections on November 19, 2013.

The government has secured the approval of the president to use the Nepal Army for the security during the elections to a new CA. First, the government had sent a proposal for using the Nepal Army for the election purposes to the president. After consulting with the constitutional experts and the attorney general, the president found out that the proposal was not following the constitution. So, the president sent it back to the government for submitting a correct proposal for the use of the Nepal Army for the elections. Then, the government made recommendations to the president for issuing an ordinance on using the Nepal Army for the elections following the consent of the four-party political leaders. The president issued the ordinance on September 24, 2013 paving the way for the government using the Nepal Army for the security during the elections.

Political parties have been busy with the writing of their manifestos. This time, the manifestos will have the two major subjects such as federalism or no federalism. In fact, Nepal has been the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal but some political parties and politicians have been against federalism. For example, Chitra Bahadur KC of the Janamorcha Nepal has been campaigning against the federalism. Other major political parties such as NC and CPN-UML have been against federalism even though most of the leaders of these two major political parties speak for federalism. These political parties will have anti-federalism on their agenda in their respective political manifestos. Other political parties such as UCPN-Maoist, all Madheshi political parties and Federal Social Party will have strong provision for federalism in their manifestos. Nepalese voters would need to vote for federalism or against federalism.

Political parties have been giving conflicting information on the federalism. They have been more concerned with the names of the would-be States and their numbers rather than the contents in running their administration. Some political experts even say that Nepal cannot sustain many States financially. Stating such things they demonstrated their lack of knowledge of state finances. Other political leaders and constitutional experts express their concern for the names and the numbers of States but they miss out on the vital issues such as the inclusive nature of states, and the authority to run the states. If the States do not have the authority to run the administration independently for socio-economic development of their citizens then the names and numbers of the States don’t make any sense.

The Election Commission (EC) is going to print ballot papers even during the Dasain holidays. The EC needs to print two kinds of ballot papers: one for the direct elections, another for the elections for the proportional representation. The ballot papers for the direct elections will have the names of the candidates and their election symbols whereas the ballot papers for electing the proportional representation will have the names and the symbols of the political parties. The EC is going to print the ballot papers at the state-owned printing press at Sanothimi, Bhaktapur.

Voters will have two ballot papers: one for voting for the candidates, another for voting for the political parties. Political parties will have their representatives directly elected and the representatives selected based on the number of votes political parties have received. Even if political parties were not have their candidates directly elected they might have their representatives based on the number of votes they received. Thus, even smallest political parties might have their representatives in the CA.

September 27, 2013