CJ-led Government-32

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

Major political parties have released their manifestoes. Political leaders apologetically said in their manifestoes that they were responsible for not crafting a new constitution in the past. They stuck to their previous stand on the federalism, system of governance and their policy on the economic development. Some political clowns have continued entertaining the public with the political madness. The government has committed to tighten the security for the elections. The Election Commission has revised its election codes of conduct, and permitted to use helicopters for the election campaign throughout the country.

The UCPN-Maoist has proposed 11 provinces, and 22 autonomous areas within the provinces, and an executive president directly elected by the universal franchise, and a prime minister elected by a legislature in its manifesto called a commitment paper published on Saturday October 19, 2013. The party also says that a new constitution would have the main theme of federalism with identity, inclusive and proportional representative democracy. The commitment paper says that the UCPN-Maoist will institutionalize ‘People-oriented Federal Democratic Republic’.

Concerning the economic development, the UCPN-Maoist has put forward the five-year, ten-year, twenty-year, and forty-year short-term, midterm, and long-term development agenda that would double the current slightly more than $ 700 per capita income in five years, and almost quadruple in ten years, and would be fifteen folds in 20 years, and would reach the threshold of the developed countries in 40 years.

The investment foreseen for such a fast economic development is two-thirds from the private sector, and one-third from the state revenue. The source of the private investments will be the remittances, investments of the non-resident Nepalis, and the direct foreign investments.

According to the commitment paper of the UCPN-Maoist, tillers will have the ownership of the land they plow. Kamaiya, haliya, haruwa, caruwa, landless people, and the poor will receive land free following the revolutionary land reform.

Within fifteen years, unemployment will be totally eliminated, the commitment paper says. People living under the poverty line will have at least 180 days of employment a year. It will create 50,000 job opportunities every year.

The NC released its manifesto on October 24, 2013. According to the manifesto, the NC has taken the moral responsibility for not crafting a new constitution during the life of the previous constituent assembly. It has said that it will honor all the issues agreed in the past, and will deal with only the disputed issues. It will craft a constitution of Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal within a year of the elections to a new constituent assembly, and it will hold the elections to the local governments within six months of setting up a new constituent assembly. The NC will continue the current mixed electoral system: direct and proportional representation.

The NC has proposed seven provinces with the identity and representations of all the people living there. It also kept its door open to discuss 13 provinces. The NC has stuck to its previous stand on forming provinces based on their capacities and the identities that will represent all the people living there.

Concerning the governance, the NC has repeated its past stand on a constitutional president and an executive prime minister both elected by a legislature. President will be the head of state, and prime minister will be the head of government.

The NC says in its manifesto that it has launched an economic revolution based on the private sector development but it has not been able to complete it because of the national conflict launched by the Maoists in 1996, and it is committed to complete it in the coming years. It could have institutionalized democracy, and achieved its targets on the economic development; and Nepal would have been an emerging state leaving behind the poverty if the conflict would not have hampered it.

The CPN-UML has released its manifesto on October 22, 2013. The manifesto says that the CPN-UML is for seven provinces with multi-identity; however, it has kept its door opened to revise the number of provinces and their models as required. It has proposed a directly elected prime minister and a president elected by a legislature.

Concerning the economic development, the leaders of the CPN-UML say that they will demonstrate the hydro revolution for the economic development. It will create job opportunities of 300,000 per year and will make sure every household has one employed person in 10 years. It also will provide every village administration with five million rupees per year.

Madheshi political parties have separately published their election manifestoes. Unfortunately, it is not good for the nation as well as the Madheshi people. Their unity would contribute to the strong national development but their division will cause the unnecessary troubles to the nation to the amusements of the people that don’t want to see the united Madheshi people. The divided Madheshis will help other political parties to cash in their divisions.

In the election campaigns, leaders of the major political parties have said that they will craft a new constitution within a year of the elections to a new constituent assembly. They have been apologetic about not being able to craft a new constitution in the past. Some leaders even said that the people would not have a new constitution if they would not have a majority in the new assembly. How to interpret this statement? Does it mean the political party not having a majority would stop other parties from crafting a new constitution?

Some political clowns have continued entertaining the public with their funny slogans that a few people will really believe in them.

For example, Chairman of the Janamorcha party Chitra Bahadur KC has been hopping from one district to another, from east to west, and north to south to tell the people not to vote for federalists because they would split the country into pieces. He is for a unitary system of governance, as he fears forming provinces and other local governments would split the country into pieces. However, he has proposed seven administrative regions that the local media have mistaken them as the provinces, and has publicized that even Chitra Bahadur KC has been for federal states. However, Chairman KC took the opportunity of vehemently opposing the media report on his party adopting the federalism while speaking to the anchor of the Radio Nepal on the morning of October 24, 2013. Mr. KC is not at all for any sort of federalism.

Another political manic Kamal Thapa of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP-Nepal) has been advocating for bringing back the dead monarchy to life, and making Nepal a Hindu state. He believes that Nepalese people will overwhelmingly vote for giving a new life to the monarchy. A new constituent assembly will vote for bringing back the dead monarchy to life. Mr. Thapa has a dream of his party getting a majority in a new constituent assembly.

The government has tightened the security for holding elections to a new constituent assembly in a free, and fair manner. The home ministry has been keeping surveillance on some of the militant leaders of the CPN-Maoist so that they would not have a chance to create any unwanted incidents. However, some Maoists have been adopting the hit and run strategy. They also have been shutting down the districts wherever Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda is scheduled to visit for the election campaigns. Some political analysts say that the CPN-Maoist has made the UCPN-Maoist its main target on disrupting the elections to a new constituent assembly. So far, the CPN-Maoist has not been able to make any significant dent on disrupting the elections. Most of its cadres looting the elections materials have been facing the public offense charges.

The Nepal army has been providing the security to the transport of election materials. The Nepal army personnel have been escorting the transport of ballot boxes and ballot papers to the 240 constituencies. The EC has been transporting the ballot papers for the proportional representation. Printing of the ballot papers for the direct elections are going on. The Nepal Army has kept one helicopter at each region of the five development regions ready to cope with any emergency.

The home ministry is closing the Nepalese borders with China and India for three days: one day before the elections and one day after, and on the Election Day for the security of voters. The Nepal police will keep surveillance on the people crossing the borders between India and Nepal, and even will search the people coming from India, and return the suspects back to India if necessary.

To review the preparations made for the elections, and the security situation, Chairman of Interim Election Council of Ministers Khilraj Regmi called a meeting of all the ministers, and secretaries to the ministries, and the officials of the Election Commission on October 23, 2013. Chairman Regmi instructed all the ministers and secretaries at the meeting to keep all the state officials working on holding the elections on duty, and take strong actions anybody breaching the duty.

The government has to cope with security breaches. The CPN-Maoist has been trying to create an uneasy situation at districts enforcing shutdowns in one district or another wherever Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda has scheduled to visit for an election campaign. The security needs to handle the cases of cadres of political parties fighting against each other. The security also has to insure the safety of political leaders wherever they visit for the election campaigns. At least three top leaders of major political parties had taken hits from their own cadres in the past.

A gang of youths has assaulted Singheshwor Prasad Saha: candidate of CPN-Marxist- Leninist at the Saptari Constituency No. 5 on the night of October 23, 2013 while he was in the election campaign at the Khojpur VDC-7 in the Siraha. He has bruises on the face and other parts of the body, and he is undergoing treatment at the Mahendra Narayan Nidhi Hospital, according to DSP Shyam Singh Chaudhary at the District Police Office. Investigation into the case is underway, the police have said. (Source: RSS news on ‘gorkhapatraonline.com’)

Unidentified criminals have been active, too. On October 23, an unidentified group set fire on the vehicle used by the candidate of the UCPN-Maoist in the Kaski district. An unidentified gang set fire on the vehicle with the license plate number ‘Ga 1 Cha 5143’ of the UCPN-Maoist candidate of the Kaski Constituency No. 1 Bishnu Poudel at the Niibuwaswara village of the Siddha VDC-6 in the Kaski district. UCPN-Maoist candidate Poudel said that two wheels of the jeep were burnt making the vehicle dysfunctional, and he blamed the status-quos force for setting fire on the vehicle fearing their defeat in the upcoming elections, according to the RSS news posted on the ‘gorkhapatraonline.com.

Cadres of the CPN-Maoist have looted the election publicity materials of the UCPN-Maoist at Rimna VDC in the Jajarkot district on Tuesday, October 23, 2013. UCPN-Maoist leader and coordinator of the Constituency No. 1 Dambar Rawat said that the poll-opposing CPN-Maoist cadres looted two mikes, 1000 pamphlets and 130 calendars. The cadres of the CPN-Maoist thrashed Ram Kumar KC of Khagenkot for carrying the publicity materials, according to the RSS news posted on the ‘gorkhaptraonline.com.’

In a statement issued in Kathmandu on October 22, 2013, pointing out the unfortunate clashes among the cadres of the different political parties elsewhere, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) urged all political parties to conduct election campaigns in a peaceful manner across the country. NHRC has drawn the attention of the political leaders to the clashes occurred in Panchthar, Siraha, Dhadhing, Salyan, Rukum and Surkhet during the election campaigns. NHRC has said that such incidents are unfortunate, and urged all political parties, the government and other stakeholders to create an environment conducive to every citizen participate in the elections without fear, and intimidation. (Source: ‘gorkhapatraonline.com’)

In another statement issued in Kathmandu on October 23, 2013, NHRC has said that within a week, it starts monitoring the possible incidents of human rights violation during the elections; 44 monitoring teams including the human rights officers will be in all 75 districts. The teams will monitor human rights violation before, during and after the polls. NHRC has said that it will monitor the enforcement of the rights guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and other main treaties of which Nepal is a state party, by the Interim Constitution, and also by the Election Codes of Conduct. The teams will monitor the voters' education, the violation of voting rights possibly by the political parties, and the voting rights of disabled, senior citizens and minority groups. NHRC has urged all security personnel and civil servants to respect and protect the people’s rights. (Source: ‘gorkhapatraonline.com’)

The EC has revised its election codes of conduct and permitted to use helicopters for the election campaigns in all the districts. Previously, the EC has permitted to use helicopters in the remote constituencies only.

The EC also published the names of the candidates of the political parties for the proportional representation. The total number of candidates is almost 11,000. Each political party has sent a list of its candidates in a sealed envelop to the EC.

Most of the political leaders have committed to complete a new constitution within a year of the elections if they were given the majority. They did not say what would happen if they were not given the majority they sought for. However, some political leaders have said that they have reached a gentlemanly agreement on crafting a new constitution no matter what would be the results of the upcoming elections. Some of the leaders have said that if they could not build a consensus on the disputed issues they would take the issues to the constituent assembly for voting. Previously, the top leaders of the major political parties did not take the controversial issues to the constituent assembly for voting rather they let the constituent assembly die on May 28, 2012. The top political leaders had made the previous constituent assembly a rubber stamp. We hope that the political leaders have been enlightened and they would not repeat such irrational things to happen this time.

October 25, 2013