The Third-Phase Local Election

The Third-Phase Local Election

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

The Deuba government has decided to postpone the local election at province number two for September 18, 2017. This is a strategic decision and very matured political decision. The local election will be held only in the provinces one, five and seven on June 28, 2017. Some political parties including Rastriya Janata Party (RJP) are not happy with the decision. CPN-UML leaders have been opposing everything including this decision. Most of the potential candidates in the province number two also were not pleased with the postponement of the local election.

On June 15, 2017, the Deuba administration in cooperation with the partner in governance Maoist-Center decided to postpone the local election at the province number two apparently for making the RJP participate in the election. However, it was a strategic political decision on holding the local election smoothly at least in three provinces such as one, five and seven.

The administration could use the force and hold election in the province number two, too; no doubt about that but anybody could question the validity and legality of the election held by force. RJP would certainly not accept the election. So, holding the local election at the province number two using the State power would be surely futile and would not be the appropriate action of the administration when the country needed peace, harmony and smooth transition to the new federal system. So, the decision to postpone the election at the province number two was a strategic one.

After holding the election at provinces one, five and seven, the Election Commission would need to hold election only in the province number two. Then, the administration would have less problem of maintaining law and order during the election. Naturally, the administration would have the less pressure of keeping the law and order in the single province number two.

The most important part of the decision on deferring the election has been the opportunity of holding the election at the provinces number one, five and seven peacefully and impartially without the opposition of any political parties. After the local election in these provinces, the administration could claim that the second-phase election was completed successfully. At least the six provinces would have the local elected governments.

The second most important part of the decision on putting off the election at the province number two has been the RJP would have almost no complaint about not meeting their demands. The Deuba administration and the previous Prachanda administration had tried their best to meet the demands of the RJP leaders. However, some of the demands had been beyond the control of the administration.

Currently, the RJP leaders have been in the dilemma of whether to participate in the election or not. Two-thirds of the RJP leaders have been for taking part in the local election but some of them still want to boycott the election and remain aloof from the election. If RJP leaders were to be matured and visionary politicians they would need to take part in the local election otherwise they would be isolating them from the mainstream politics.

A leader of the Federal Socialistic Forum-Nepal Upendra Yadav has vehemently opposed the rescheduling of the local election at the province number two. He must have many reasons for doing so but some of the reasons might be that Yadav wanted to show he was correct on his stand on taking part in the election and the RJP leaders were wrong not taking part in the election; he also must have believed that he would have a good support of the voters in the province number two, and he could demonstrate how the local people were in his favor. He also wanted to prove that he was a visionary leader participating in the elections rather than boycotting it that would not give any positive results. He knew that even the bill on the amendment to the constitution were to pass by the parliament would not bring any drastic changes in the lives of the Madheshi people; then why the matured leader such as Yadav needed to waste time on such things.

Leader Yadav has even questioned why the RJP leaders wanted to deny the Madheshi people their rights to vote if they were really working for the Madheshi people. He said that in the name of working for the Madheshi people, the RJP leaders have been using the Madheshi people as tools to meet their interest.

CPN-UML leaders as always were not pleased with the decision of the Deuba administration on putting off the election at the province number two whether it was correct or not; the CPN-UML leaders did not want to judge it but they had to oppose it anyhow because they were in the opposition; it was the main trait of the parliamentary system of governance. Thus, the CPN-UML had been a negative force in the governance.

Most of the potential candidates and even voters have been disappointed in not holding the local election in the province number two as scheduled. They have already spent a lot of resources and energy on campaigning, and after the rescheduling of the election they would need to keep on campaigning for another three months means a lot of resources and energy they needed to spend. Voters are eager to vote.

Obviously, the deferment of the local election at the province number two did not satisfied RJP and any other political parties except for NC and Maoist-Center: the coalition partners in the administration. As already mentioned the administration had to make such decision to keep the political situation as stable as possible keeping the dissidents as pleased as possible at for the time being.

This is not the time when anybody could confront with any dissident groups and invite the political disturbance. Bringing the RJP leaders on board was the best thing to do if it were not possible then keeping them away from going to protest was certainly political achievement for the Deuba administration.

Thus, the local election would be in three phases. The first phase election was already held in the provinces number three, four and six; the elected officials took office. The second-phase election will be held at the provinces number one, five and seven on June 28, 2017. The third-phase election at the province number two would be held on September 18, 2017.

The Election Commission has already rescheduled the second-phase election. Its notice in the “gorkhapatra” of June 16, 2017 stated that filing the nomination of candidates will be opened on June 18, and distribution of election symbols to the candidates will be done on June 20, and the second-phase election will be held from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm on June 28, 2017. It also has announced that the third-phase election at the province number two was deferred until September 18, 2017.

June 16, 2017