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]]>However, the communist parties’ cabinet seat-sharing has been a matter of discussion since the time results were announced.
As per the latest update, the two parties are most likely to go on for a 60:40 ratio in seat sharing (the same ratio implemented for fielding candidates) if their discussions do not materialize before the formation of the new Nepali Government.
UML is reportedly keen on offering 30 percent cabinet seats to its ally MC based on the number of seats the party won in the recently-concluded polls.
According to Senior MC party leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha, the announcement of Proportional Representation (PR) seats will give a needed boost to the process of new government formation.
“Otherwise, there is no alternative but to reach a deal with the Nepali Congress (on the ordinance forwarded for National Assembly election),” Narayan added.
It will take at least two weeks to form the new government even after allotment of PR seats, says UML leader Rinal.
The discussions over announcement of Khadga Prasad Oli as the next Nepali PM was also halted due to row over the formation of new National Assembly.
“The meeting of the party unification coordination committee will begin as soon as Dahal returns from Chitwan, may be on Tuesday evening or Wednesday,” informed UML Secretary Pradeep Gyawali.
This update gains significance in view of UML’s recent announcement over formation of new Nepali Government most likely by the end of December 2017.
Meanwhile, Nepal Election Commission (EC) has made another major announcement regarding Nepal’s landmark parliamentary and provincial polls.
EC, on December 22, 2017, announced the results of country’s Provincial Council (PC) elections under the Proportional Representation (PR) system.
The seats allocation under PC saw CPN-UML leading with 75 seats followed by Nepali ruling Congress with 72 seats.
While CPN-MC won 35 seats, Federal Democratic Forum (FDF) bagged 13 seats followed by Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal (RJP-Nepal) that got 12 seats.
The results of the parliamentary polls under PR system are likely to be announced very soon.
According to the EC Spokesperson Navaraj Dhakal, the PR unit functioning under EC will finish the Parliamentary PR seat allocation in the next two days. “We will unveil the result of Parliamentary PR elections as soon as possible,” informed Dhakal.
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]]>The post Nepal General Election 2017: Left Alliance Wins FPTP Polls, New Govt Likely by Dec End appeared first on Nepali Sansar.
]]>The FPTP election vote count for 165 House of Representatives (HoR) and 330 Provincial Assembly (PA) seats declared the victory of the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN)-Unified Marxist-Leninist (UML) in the recent polls.
With 80 HoR seats & 167 PA seats by UML and 36 HoR & 74 PA seats by its poll partner CPN (Maoist Centre), the left alliance finally emerged as the single largest party as per the FPTP results.
With this, the ruling Nepali Congress (NC) could find its presence only in 23 HoR and 41 PA constituencies, followed by Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal (RJP-Nepal) that received 11 HoR and 16 PA seats.
While the independents proved their presence in 1 HoR constituency and 3 PA constituencies, 6 women candidates made it to HoR.
According to EC, the vote counting of both HoR and National Assembly has come to final stages with 164 parliamentary and 329 provincial representatives elected so far in the polls held for 165 parliamentary and 330 provincial seats.
Overall, the left alliance won 116 of 165 FPTP seats for HoR and was leading the Proportional Representation (PR) count, held for 60 districts, for 110 seats.
Out of the 7,684,328 PR votes counted so far, “CPN-UML has so far secured 2,631,991 votes followed by NC (2,546,069), CPN-MC (1,045,446), Federal Socialist Forum Nepal (351,525) and the RJP-Nepal (295,448),” informed Nepal Election Commission (EC) Spokesperson Nawaraj Dhakal.
The PR vote counting is currently underway in around 17 districts and the final PR result is expected by December 15, 2017 evening.
Once the parties submit their HoR winners under PR category, EC will take the process ahead to President for further approval before making the list public.
The number of directly-elected women to the HoR seats under the FPTP category has decreased this time as only 6 women candidates made it to HoR.
This number indicates a gradual decline in women representatives in Nepali elections over a period.
While the first Constituent Assembly (CA) elections in 2008 saw 30 women representatives, the number declined to 10 in 2013 CA elections, and now it has come down to 6.
This situation lies in contrast to the constitutional rules that recommend 33 percent women representatives in the House.
This time, only three parties including CPN-UML, CPN-MC and Rastriya Janamorcha the winning female candidates.
While UML had only 3 female winners in a total of 80 FPTP seats, CPN-MC also saw a similar number among its 36 total FPTP winners.
Meanwhile, the ruling NC party saw the failure of its 9 female candidates fielded for HoR seats.
With the results announced, now the winner leftist alliance is brainstorming on the formation of the new Nepali government with key discussions on power-sharing, among others.
According to the senior left leaders, KP Oli, UML Chairman and the next PM of Nepal (likely), and the MC Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also called Prachanda, are likely to hold discussions during December 14-15, 2017 over the formation of new government at the Center.
While some experts feel the formation of central government will be possible only after Assembly results, UML feels that the Assembly (Upper House) election will not be an issue and aims at the formation by the end of December 2017.
Following the formation, the President will call for the first Federal Parliament session under the new government, within 30 days of the declaration of final results of HoR as recommended by the Nepali Constitution.
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]]>The post Nepal Legislative Elections 2017: Highlights and Salient Features appeared first on Nepali Sansar.
]]>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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]]>The post Nepal Legislative Elections 2017: New Political Alliances and a Three-way Fight appeared first on Nepali Sansar.
]]>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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]]>The post Nepal Elections 2017: New Alliances Mark Major Shifts in Nepali Politics appeared first on Nepali Sansar.
]]>Nepal started witnessing major political shifts ahead of the country’s most-awaited provincial and federal elections scheduled for November 26, 2017 and December 7, 2017.
In a major move, the leftist and democratic parties started forming broader alliances bringing in a sudden shift in the Nepali political landscape.
While the two leftist parties CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre) and Babu Ram Bhattarai-led Naya Shakti Party-Nepal announced a broader alliance yesterday, immediately a day after, the ruling Nepali Congress (NC) today decided to form another alliance of democratic forces.
In a meeting convened by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and the NC President, NC decided to form a seven-member team as a stronger democratic alliance.
“The parties have reached a consensus on forming an electoral alliance among the democratic and federal forces,” said NC leader Bimalendra Nidhi.
This move by the ruling party is coming after the NC Working Committee concluded the formation of democratic alliance as the only alternative to counter the leftist forces.
The leftist alliance has also formed a six-point agreement to form a drafting committee to prepare the policy and finish the merger post the elections.
“Nepali people have aspired for this unity and this unity is the need of the country. We have begun a journey of unification,” said Oli while informing that the new alliance is aiming for two-thirds majority in the upcoming polls.
Meanwhile, in a statement, PM Deuba informed that the government is committed to holding elections as scheduled despite the threats being posed by the left alliance.
The top leaders hailed the ongoing mergers and hoped the new political shifts would could unify other leftist and democratic forces to advocate for a country’s development.
Entrepreneurs of the Chitwan region welcomed the merger of leftist parties to form a leftist alliance and called for the alliance of rightist parties.
They hoped such alliances would pave the way for stable government in the country.
“The recent agreement among the three parties to forge electoral alliance for the upcoming provincial and parliamentary elections would definitely pave the way for a stable government. However, vested interests should not act to bring splits,” says Rajan Gautam, Chair, Chitwan chapter of Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
We can attract investments in the industrial sector if there is a majority government, he adds.
Meanwhile, Chair of Ratnanagar chapter of Chambers of Commerce and Industry Rajaram Regmi said the unification has opened opportunities for the entrepreneurs who were tired of offering political donations. “I hope this alliance helps create investment-friendly atmosphere,” Regmi added.
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