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Local Elections In Nepal And Madheshi Leaders
Local Elections In Nepal And Madheshi Leaders
KTM Reporter
April 19, 2017
Th Election Commission (EC) is set to hold local elections for electing more than 36,000 local government officials on May 14, 2017. EC has already printed about 15 million ballot papers, and voters’ ID cards, posted election officials, and set the poll centers in other words almost everything has been ready for holding elections.
However, the Madheshi political leaders conditioned or even being the puppets tuned by the neighbors have decided to go for a political movement to disrupt the elections. They pretend to be powerful enough to do so even though they know their limitation and weakness..
The coalition partners in power want to keep the Madheshi leaders cool. Even now, the five political parties such as NC, CPN-UML, CPN-Maoist-Center, RPP, and Bijaya Gacchedar’s party have agreed on holding the elections in two stages postponing the elections in the provinces where the Madheshi leaders have some hold for a few days.
Some political analysts say that no matter what the leaders in power offer to the Madheshi leaders they would not accept it and participate in the local elections, as they have no hope of garnering enough votes to have their political identity not to mention winning the elections.
Attending the meeting called by President Bhandari at her official resident recently, the Madheshi intellectuals have said that the so-called Madheshi leaders’ demands don’t reflect the Madheshi people’s wishes. The Madheshi leaders want to limit the power given by the Constitution to the local governments but the people don’t. The Madheshi intellectuals said what the country needed is the elections not the amendment to the Constitution.
The Madheshi leaders have faced the unprecedented defeat in the general elections to the Constituent Assembly held in 2013. Since then, they have difficulty in keeping their heads above the water.
They have burned down the constitution, and then blocked the supplies trucks coming to Nepal from India at the border entry points for about five months in 2015. They dined on masu-bhat (meat and rice dish) on the Indian side of border and stayed on the borderline to stop the supplies trucks moving. They could do so thanks to the support provided by the neighbor.
Such anti-nationalistic activities of the Madheshi leaders have made them even more unpopular even among the Madheshi people for whom they have been saying that they have been fighting. Their influence on the Madheshi people has waned to the lowest possible if any they have.
So, if any alternative the Madheshi leaders have is to continue their movement so that at least they could keep them in the media light. So, they talk about shutting down the country when they have difficulty in shutting down their hometowns and villages in protest.
Not participating in the local elections they would lose the opportunity to prove their political worth. Any rational thinking politicians would engage in influencing the voters rather than disrupting the elections. If they have the strong political agenda to convince the people if they are actually fighting for the causes of Madheshi people they would certainly take part in the elections and prove that they are really the leaders that receive the mandate from the people at least to run the local governments.
