Nepali Elections- Long Time Coming
So Far, Elections To The Constituent Assembly Are Running Smoothly
Nepal is going to the ballot for the first time. So far calm has prevailed but there could be serious questions to be answered when results are announced later.
Nepal’s Constituent Assembly elections have finally arrived. Promised by King Tribhuvan in the 1950s, the Nepali people have waited for over 50 years to be given their say on how the country should be governed, 50 years blackened by autocratic royal rule, a civil war and gross governmental incompetence and negligence. So deep ran political, economic and military problems that the elections had already been repeatedly postponed and many had questioned if they would ever be held at all.
Polls opened at 7am on Thursday 10th April and across the country over 9000 candidates of 55 parties began fighting for 240 seats decided by a first past the post system and 335 decided by proportional representation. A further 26 posts will be selected by the Cabinet and will complete the 601-seat Constituent Assembly.
Election Quotas to Include Minorities
The country’s first election includes quotas which stipulate that thirty three percent of a party’s candidates must be women, showing that even in a poor, majority Hindu country, Nepal, like India, is accepting that women have increasingly important roles to play in the governance of the country.
Dalits, or “untouchables” are still considered the lowest strata of Hindu society, and an attempt has been made to confront this in the current election. A quota has been formulated for their inclusion in any future government, and Dalits are now guaranteed thirteen percent of proportional representation seats, and the “oppressed and indigenous” thirty seven percent of seats (Guardian, 10th April 2008). Whether such measures will go far enough in negating the current Bahun, Chhetri and Newar (high Hindu castes) stranglehold on government and the army will not be known until long after the election results are in.
Swapping the Bullet for the Ballot: The Maoist Party
Undoubtedly, the party hogging the political limelight is that of Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). Joining the mainstream political process after a long “people’s war” which killed 13,000, the Maoists’ conversion from an armed insurgency to championing the causes of the poorer classes has at times looked extremely shaky. Its youth wing, the Young Communist League has been responsible for widespread intimidation, extortion and in the case of an anti Maoist doctor, torture, and demands from higher up in the party to cease such activities seem to have have fallen on deaf ears.
Struggling To Adapt To Peaceful Politics
Recently, support for the Maoists has dropped sharply in the wake of countrywide forced donation campaigns (of which the author has been a victim), the beating and harassment of political opponents and the party admitting its involvement in the abduction and murder of Birendra Shah, a pro-royalist journalist last year. Many see the Maoists counting themselves among the top three political parties after the election, but they will face stiff competition from the more popular Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) and also from the current Prime Minister, G.P Koirala’s Nepali Congress Party.
Statements from Maoist leaders shortly before the election sent out conflicting and in some cases worrying signals. Many are hoping Dahal’s recent comments that his party “will respect any verdict of the elections” (Guardian, 10th April 2008) will override elements of the party who have said that the only way a Maoist defeat in elections is possible is through the conspiring of India, America and pro-royalist elements inside Nepal, and if this happens then a return to the gun is the only option. A full-scale return to the jungle by the Maoists would be a disaster for Nepal; if the current interim political arrangements fail to bring peace and stability to the country the politicians will be seen to have failed and the time would again be ripe for the King to make a move, dismiss the Government and rule autocratically with the loyal army at his side.
Election Day Disturbances
As of the 9th of April, election related violence has been confined to outbursts in Dhading, Surkhet and Dang districts, and the plains in the south of the country bordering India, so long a hotbed for numerous armed groups fighting for regional autonomy have so far remained reasonably quiet by Nepali standards. Police have been posted at polling booths, armed in case of agitation, and both the Nepali Army and the Maoists’ Liberation Army have been confined to barracks during polling. (nepalnews.com).
After Nepal Votes
Difficult questions may have to be answered once the votes have been counted, which could take up to three weeks according to the Election Commission. Already many are predicting that the elections may not have truly represented the will of the people :”it will be an uphill task for the Election Commission (EC) to hold it (the election) in a ‘free fair and impartial’ manner” according to nepalnews.com. Fears over the Maoists’ reaction if they loose badly, or what steps King Gyanendra may take once an elected Constituent Assembly moves to strip him of his remaining status as it is expected to do, still cloud the air. India and China are watching events in Nepal extremely closely and the rest of the world too is waiting to see if the Nepali people are to be finally enshrined with a modern, functioning democracy and with it, peace.
