In the Final Election Observation Report, EU-EOM termed the recently-concluded Nepali elections as ‘historic’ and a milestone activity.

In her comments, Zeljana Zovko, Chief Observer of EU-EOM appreciated the way elections were conducted and said these polls form a key milestone in the implementation of the new Nepali Constitution promulgated in 2015.

Zovko said the legal framework formed a strong basis for the successful conduction of elections.

She further lauded Nepal for ensuring proper implementation of the Right to Vote during the election campaigning process.

Special Recommendations

The EU-EOM final report included a total of 29 recommendations to the Government of Nepal regarding enforcement of laws to control vote-buying, review of First-Past-The-Post (FTFP) constituency boundaries for effective exercising of Right of Vote and increased transparency from the Election Commission of Nepal.

While the report highlighted’ that ‘the Election Commission of Nepal failed to publish critical information on voter turnout across polling centers and invalid votes along with lack of procedural weaknesses,’ the Election Commissioner Sudhir Shah responded saying, “We also can’t expect standards as high as those applicable in the UK and the US in Nepal at a time when the EC was forced to hold so many elections in less than a year.”

EU also urged for the removal of certain well-represented communities from the inclusion quota under the Proportional Representation (PR) electoral system.

“Review the impact of the quota system on the ethnic composition of the House of Representatives and Provincial Assemblies and ensure the measures of affirmative action apply only to groups that are the subjects of negative discrimination,” noted the report.

Mission Complete

Upon the request from the Government of Nepal, EU had deployed around 100 election observers representing 28 EU member states along with Switzerland and Norway, as the special election observation team to monitor the two phases, Phase-I and Phase-II, of Nepal legislative polls for House of Representatives and Assemblies on November 24 and December 07, 2017.

EU had spent an estimated EUR 3.5 million for the mission and had appointed around 38 Long Term Observers (LTOs) across different parts of Nepal to monitor the election preparations and related logistics issues.

 “It is a great honor for me to lead the EU Election Observation Mission to Nepal. I’m very committed to accompany Nepal in this important phase of its democratic process,” Zovko stated earlier after the announcement of his team’s help to Nepal elections.

Apart from EU, various other teams including as General Election Observation Committee (GEOC), National Election Observation Committee (NOEC) and Inclusive Women Network for Peace, Justice and Democracy (Sankalp) had also deployed their teams for the successful conduction of elections.

EU had appointed similar missions in 2008 and 2013 as well.

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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.

PR Counting Underway

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.

Decline in Women Representatives

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.

Brainstorming Begins

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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While 157 of the total 165 House of Representatives seats were announced so far under the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) election, the leftist alliance alone garnered a total of 106 seats.

Of this, the Communist Parties of Nepal Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) won the highest number of 74 seats followed by CPN-Maoist Centre (MC) that won 32 seats, informed the Election Commission on December 11, 2017.

With the left alliance moving towards forming majority in the Nepali Parliament, the Communist Alliance is projecting the erstwhile Prime Minister and the communist party leader Khadga Prasad Oli as its Prime Minister candidate.

Oli won from the Jhapa-5 constituency with more than 28,000 votes against the Nepali Congress candidate Khagendra Adhikari. Oli bagged 57,139 votes in total, the highest number of votes secured by any contestant in this election.

CPN Chairman Pushpa Kumar Dahal, another name in PM’s race, got elected to the Federal Parliament from the Chitwan-3 constituency for his win against the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) candidate Bikram Pandey with 48, 276 votes.

Meanwhile, the current Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba registered victory in the Dadeldhura-1 constituency against Khaga Raj Bhatta of CPN with 28, 044 votes.

Rajendra Mahato from Dhanusa-3 constituency with 30, 742 votes, Upendra Yadav from Saptari-2 constituency with 21,620 votes, Gagan Thapa from Kathmandu-4 constituency with 21, 558 votes were among others who got elected to the Nepali Federal Parliament.

With Communist alliance leading the race, experts feel Oli could be the next Prime Minister of Nepal.

“We can expect Oli to lead a stable government with the Maoists as strong allies. Once there is a political stability, he can implement a development agenda and attract foreign investment,” opines Bipin Adhikari, a constitutional expert.

Meanwhile, in Proportional Representation (PR) category, UML stands leading with 936,442 votes, followed by Nepali Congress (NC) in the second position with 878,824 votes and CPN-MC in the third position with 385,434 votes.

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Post the completion of first phase polls with 65 percent voter turnout on November 26, 2017, Nepal went on for the final phase of its most-awaited parliamentary and provincial polls across 15,344 polling centers in 45 districts.

A total of 4,482 candidates including 1,663 candidates for 128 parliamentary seats and 2,819 for 256 provincial assembly seats contested in the final phase that has involved around 12.1 million eligible voters, nearly 80% of the Nepali population.

This is the first election conducted for Nepali Parliament and Provincial Assembly after the new constitution was promulgated in 2015.

Public Response

All sections of Nepali society eagerly participated in Nepal’s 2017 provincial and parliamentary elections.

“I am voting after many years because there is new hope in the country with the establishment of provinces,” said Iswor Prasad Shrestha (70), a Nepali businessman.

Kedar Sharan Raya, a retired senior lawyer, said, “I am here to vote today because it is the first election for provinces with the hope these provincial governments will be able to deliver development.”

Election observers from foreign countries did not report any discrepancies in the electoral process.

It’s Counting Time!

The Election Commission (EC) of Nepal has promised to complete the vote counting process within two weeks from the day of election conclusion.

“Counting of votes of both parliamentary and provincial FPTP elections and both parliamentary and provincial Proportional Representation (PR) elections can begin together. We are confident that the counting could be completed, if there is no obstacle or setback within the set deadline,” says the Election Commissioner Ishwori Prasad Poudel.

 “Vote counting should be done at the earliest. Therefore, we have issued orders from center to all the vote counting centers,” reads a statement by the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Ayodhee Prasad Yadav, who said the First-Past-The-Post (FTFP) voting will be out in a week from the date of completion of election.

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Here are the some of the key updates in the wake of final round of elections:

Silence Period Underway

In the wake of legislative elections for electing House of Representatives and Provincial Assemblies, The Election Commission (EC) of Nepal announced the silence period during December 4-7, 2017.

Campaigning, poll surveys, airing of any material in favor or against any political party, among other election-related activities have been banned as part of the election code of conduct during the silence period.

However, publishing and distribution of voter education materials, information or any related message, among others by EC are out of restriction.

Borders Sealed for 72 hours

As part of security measures for Nepal general election 2017, the country’s local administration has closed public movement across 22 border points.

The Government of Nepal sealed borders for 72 hours starting from December 05, 2017.

While a large number of people were stranded at the Kakadbhitta border point, DSP Tanka Bhattarai of the Area Police Office, Kakadbhitta, says, “Those carrying Nepali citizenship and identity cards are only allowed to enter Nepal. The border is open for those traveling to India.”

“Besides the closure of our customs office, we’ve also stepped up security ahead of the polls,” says Binod Prakash Singh, Chief District Officer of Parsa.

Bhadrapur in Nepal’s eastern border with Bihar state and a 500-km long Indo-Nepal border connecting Uttar Pradesh are among those closed.

The closed borders will be reopened from the midnight of December 07, 2017.

Special Transportation for Voters

To ease the voting process, political parties have booked 80 percent public vehicles to transport voters from Kathmandu to their home districts, informed the Federation of Nepalese National Transport Entrepreneurs.

The political parties have already made reservations in this regard, informed Dolanath Khanal, FNNTE President.

Condemning the parties’ move, “Taking voters to their home districts with an aim to influence their vote is gross violation of the election code of conduct,” says Navaraj Dhakal, EC Spokesperson.

Rise in Fuel Import Prices

Nepal’s fuel import bill during the October-November of 2017 has gone up 40 percent in the light of general elections thus impacting the election campaigning activities involving vehicular movement.

According to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC), the fuel import bill touched Rs 7.44 billion and Rs 8.30 billion in August and September, respectively, which increased to Rs 10.17 billion by October and further to Rs 13.18 billion in November.

The import bills of petrol, cooking gas, diesel and aviation fuel have gone up during the period.

While diesel import has increased from 100,447 kiloliters during August-September period to 141,054 kiloliters by mid October-November period, petrol imports saw a 20 percent rise in the last two months and stood at 42,000 kiloliters.

Human Rights Alerts

In the wake of recent blasts that targeted few political party members and poll contestants, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) urged the government to tighten poll security.

In this regard, NHRC has also deployed its special team to take stock of the victims affected in recent blasts.

Meanwhile, the renowned international human rights body Amnesty International (AI) also urged the Nepali Government to ensure safety and security of public and human rights.

“AI Nepal notes with concern the recent attacks targeting political leaders and campaigners with explosive devices that have resulted in numerous injuries and one death in Dang,” AI Nepal said in a statement.

Nirajan Thapaliya, Director of Amnesty International Nepal, said, “There should be an independent and effective investigation into incidents of violence, and the suspected perpetrators should be held accountable through fair trials.”

Special Observation Teams, Security High on Agenda

EC has allowed a total of 45,000 members to monitor the observe and monitor the final phase of election.

This includes 52 domestic observing institutions and four international observer groups.

Besides, the Nepal Election Observation Committee (NEOC) is deploying more than 2,000 observers to monitor the elections across 45 districts.

“Considering the ongoing explosions, we are focusing more on election security. We have a team of experts on security. We are not only paying attention to the election day but also to the days before and after the elections,” says Kapil Shrestha, Vice-Chairperson, NEOC.

Shrestha further informed that a special focus will also be laid on other issues such as booth captures and multiple voting that impact free and fair elections.

Election Observation Committee Nepal (EOCN) and Democracy Resource Centre (DRC) are among other government bodies that are tracking security situation, political environment, electoral process and voter awareness, among other aspects.

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“We urge everyone to respect the freedoms of peaceful expression and assembly, and individual voters’ rights as laid out in Nepal’s laws and constitution,” read a statement by the US Embassy in Kathmandu.

In its release, the US Diplomatic Mission to Nepal raised concerns and condemned the recent attacks on political candidates contesting in the upcoming elections.

The Embassy informed that US is committed to working with all stakeholders to ensure an inclusive, peaceful and credible election process.

PM Deuba Calls for Tight Security

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of Nepal Sher Bahadur Deuba directed the security officials to ensure full security to the public in the light of the upcoming general elections.

“The constitution has been promulgated after a long struggle. Election is must for constitution implementation. People should get peaceful environment to cast their votes. Do not leave any stone unturned in security system to save the people’s voting rights,” said Deuba in his address at a security seminar for the upcoming elections in Kathmandu today.

Meanwhile, Home Secretary Mohan Krishna Sapkota said, “Security challenges in elections have already been identified. Problems will be resolved after moving ahead with the effective security plans.”

On the occasion, security chiefs of all districts briefed about their strategies and also highlighted security conditions, challenges and measures to be implemented to ensure safe electoral process.

Special Observation Missions on the Other Side

Meanwhile, the European Union and the renowned NGO Carter Center have already launched their international Election Observation Missions (EBO) for the Nepal’s upcoming provincial and parliamentary elections.

“Every election has their own challenges and the authorities that are preparing the elections have been facing lots of challenges and Nepal is not exempted from that. Especially considering the fact that the local elections were held recently in September, I don’t see any problem in the government’s efforts,” says Zeljana Zovko, Chief Observer of the EU Election Observation Mission.

The EU mission is making an estimated spending of EUR 3.5 million for the process and has deployed around 38 Long Term Observers (LTOs) across different parts of Nepal to monitor the ongoing preparations and related logistic issues.

Whereas, Carter Center has deployed 14 LTOs and a core team of five experts led by Field Office Director Carlos Valenzuela. Altogether, Carter Center’s team has observers representing 13 countries.

“The Carter Center has a long history in Nepal and we are honored to be present for the first national-level elections since the adoption of the constitution. We trust the elections will be peaceful and will help consolidate Nepal’s democracy,” says Mary Ann Peters, CEO of Carter Center and the Ambassador (ret.).

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