Despite a request from the constituent parties of High Level Political Committee (HLPC) to cancel the trip, Chairman of the Interim Election Council Khil Raj Regmi left for New York to attend the UN General Assembly Thursday night. In his absence, however, a fresh initiative has begun to restart the negotiation with the agitating CPN-Maoist to bring the latter in the electoral process.
Even as the major political parties are now busy selecting candidates for the November 19 Constituent Assembly (CA) election, sections of these parties are now making efforts to convince the Mohan Baidya-led alliance to take part in the election, which is a welcome step. [break]
UCPN (Maoist) vice-chairman Narayankaji Shrestha is known to have held informal talks with leaders of various political parties to find a way out of the current impasse, as the general public is still not convinced and confident that the polls will be held on the scheduled date.
The previous rounds of talks between the HLPC and Baidya-led alliance had faltered at the last moment after both sides stuck to their stance. The major parties then ruled out talks with the agitating parties and instead started gearing up for the polls sans Baidya-led alliance. The last few days have been hectic for the major parties as they have been working hard to select the candidates for both the First-Past-The-Past (FPTP) and the Proportionate Representation (PR) seats. But their hard work will only bear fruit if the scheduled election is held in a free and fair manner. Going by the protest programs of the agitating parties, however, it is set to make things difficult for fearless polls.
While Baidya-led 33 party alliance has announced a general strike for ten days leading up to the election date, one of its constituents Sanghiya Limbuwan Rajya Parisad has decided to call for banda in nine eastern districts on October 3, the revised date for filing nominations by the candidates.
And more than that, the Alliance has begun to threaten the candidates themselves and ask them not to file their nominations. Amidst this situation, conducting the election in a free and fair manner, in spite of the decision to deploy the Nepal Army personnel, is still a long shot. But more than the agitating parties’ threats, it is the essence of the whole political process leading up to the election that is important and key to its success.
One should understand that the nation is gearing up for yet another election of the CA due to parties’ inability to overcome their differences on major issues like modalities of federalism and system of governance during the last CA. And these differences are still intact. This is the reason the election should be held without any hindrance to give yet another opportunity to the sovereign citizens to choose the right party themselves.
The people did not have any idea about the parties’ position on various issues during the last election in April 2008. But now, all the parties are open about their position on federalism and system of governance. Therefore, going to the people and getting a fresh mandate for their positions is the only way out at present, not only for the parties in the process but also for those who oppose it.
The country cannot afford yet another election which might give a new CA but might not guarantee a new constitution. The election of the CA is not the regular parliamentary election, as it not only requires being fully inclusive–with all strata of the society involved in the process–it should also lead to the assembly that would fulfill people’s aspiration for a new constitution. Therefore, leaving aside CPN-M-led alliance out of the process could be a difficult proposition in the days ahead.
Related story
Employment in Korea to resume only after implementation of biom...
