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]]>Nepal’s legislative election 2017 has been a long-awaited aspect for Nepal and the world as well, as the country is expected to enter a new era of development with the upcoming elections.
Besides the formation of new constitution and unexpected political alliances that shook the country’s political landscape, this election has also opened avenues for various other interesting aspects.
In a major move, dozens of businessmen including the famous people have decided to foray into politics through the upcoming polls.
Majority of the business community people who acquired part tickets include industrialists, contractors, overseas and tourism entrepreneurs.
While a few are contesting for parliamentary seats, a substantial number of businessmen are also contesting in provincial polls.
Tek Bahadur Gurung (an overseas entrepreneur), Prakash Singh Karki (President of Nepal Freight Forwarders’ Association), Ramesh Dhamala (Former President of Trekking Agencies’ Association Nepal) are among many others from the business community contesting in the provincial and parliamentary polls.
In an announcement on November 02, 2017, the Nepali Army concluded that the formation of electoral alliances has significantly reduced the threat of political clashes during the upcoming polls.
The Army made this statement after a detailed analysis on the current security situation across the country, as per the individual departmental reports.
As per the government’s election security strategy, Army stands as the final security layer after temporary security staff, Nepali Police and Armed Police Force.
Moving away from traditional methods of pasting posters, writing on walls and distributing pamphlets, Nepali political parties and candidates started using digital and social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, among others for their election campaigns for upcoming polls.
Contesting candidates and their supporters were found to have inundated social media pages with their campaigning audio and video material.
The era of election posters is gone. The most effective publicity tool in the digital age is social media,” says Janaki Lal Basnet, NC’s provincial assembly candidate from the Dang District.
“I have been planning to expedite my poll campaign online,” says CPN-Maoist Center leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara.
“I have tried to modernize my poll publicity, using QR code even in traditional publicity tools,” says State Minister for Information and Communications Tapta Bahadur Bista.
Despite large expectations, the upcoming polls are most likely to register only a less percentage of women representatives in the Nepali Parliament, says Nepali Constitution experts.
While the current constitutional rules allow 33 percent women representation in Nepali Parliament, the constitutional experts feel that might not work out in the new constitution to be formed out of upcoming polls.
“If we assume that 55 women are elected in the House of Representatives and 22 in the Upper House that will mean only 77 women in the 334-member Parliament, 33 short of the required number,” says Chandra Kanta Gyawali, a constitutional expert.
According to Gyawali, the number of women contestants fielded looks concerning.
The political parties fielded only around 50 percent women candidates in the parliamentary PR polls, Gwayali adds.
The top three parties fielded only nine women contests women for the first phase of the parliamentary FPTP polls.
While the Nepali Election Commission is doubting 33 percent women seats in the Nepali Parliament, CPN-Maoist Centre claims to have fielded 60 women candidates under the PR list and UML claims that the party’s PR list has 60 percent women candidates.
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]]>Nepal’s legislative election 2017, to be held in two phases on November 26 and December 7, 2017, is being considered as one of the key chapters in Nepali politics to end political turmoil and bring political transformation in the country.
This election holds significance as it also forms base for the formation of new Nepali Constitution that the country has been waiting for since more than two years.
While the Election Commission and the Government of Nepal are already busy in preparations, the candidates are brain storming for testing their luck!
Even though long-awaited, the actual heat around the legislative and parliamentary polls started with the announcement of unexpected broader alliances among leftist and democratic parties, respectively.
In a major move in the Nepali political landscape, the two major communist parties CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre formed a grand alliance and have already finalized their seat sharing in 165 parliamentary and 330 provincial constituencies for these First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) elections.
Both the partners have agreed upon a 60:40 seat sharing ratio with UML placing its candidates in 81 parliamentary constituencies and CPN-MC in 77 places, and independents in seven seats.
The left alliance filed its nominations for 37 Parliamentary FPTP constituencies in 32 districts that are set for election on November 26, 2017.
Apart from that, the Federal Democratic Forum-Nepal and Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal formed alliance in Province 2, and the two Madhes-based parties aligned and two Rastriya Prajatantra Parties aligned with the Nepali Congress in some constituencies.
Following leftist alliance, the ruling Nepali Congress (NC) had also announced of forming a seven-member democratic alliance to fight leftist alliance.
However, the announcement was a jolt to NC owing to the CPN-Maoist Centre party’s crucial coalition in the ruling government led by NC President and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.
Condemning the communist alliance, Deuba called on the citizens to vote for his Nepali Congress (NC) party.
“Like it or dislike it, the country needs the NC,” said Deuba at a public meeting held to announce the NC’s manifesto for parliamentary and provincial polls, while also reiterating his party’s commitment to effective functioning of federal governance in the country.
Besides NC and the new leftist alliance, there exists another political force of Madhes-based parties that hold strong base in Terai region.
Two important Madhes-based parties, Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal and Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal (RJP-N), stood second and third, respectively, in the recently-held local elections of Province No 2, in southeastern Nepal.
In response to the Nepali authorities’ request, the European Union has deployed an Election Observation Mission (EOM) to Nepal to monitor the provincial and parliamentary polls for electing House of Representatives.
EU considers this as fulfilling its long-term commitment to Nepal as part of bilateral ties.
“It is a great honor for me to lead the EU Election Observation Mission to Nepal. The forthcoming elections are taking place under a new political and electoral system. I’m very committed to accompany Nepal in this important phase of its democratic process,” says Ms Zeljana Zovko, Chief Observer of EOM.
EU had appointed similar missions in 2008 and 2013 as well.
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