There has been enough drama since the appointment of Khil Raj Regmi as the head of the electoral government. Now is the time to pull the curtains down on this uninspiring farce. This means announcing a new poll date without any further delay. This means working earnestly to bring the disgruntled forces on board. This means clearing logistics and managerial hurdles towards new election on a war footing. The current merry-go-round is only adding to confusion. Here is the Maoist Chairman accusing the government—which Pushpa Kamal Dahal, perhaps more than any other political leader, helped put in place—of dilly-dallying and ‘conspiring’ to delay polls. Here is the Election Commission dithering to propose a poll date. Then there is the Regmi government, supposedly waiting for EC to give it a clear hint. The reason for this constant buck passing and failure to agree on a common poll date is obvious: no one wants election in June.
There are big technical hurdles for June polls, no doubt. But above everything else, it is the time-buying tactics of the main political parties unsure of their poll prospects that is delaying the announcement of a new date. If the political parties in the High Level Political Committee (HLPC) wanted polls by late June, they could have put pressure on the government to press ahead. But the fact that Khil Raj Regmi came into office on the back of an agreement that provisions for November-December polls as a contingency measure suggests that irrespective of what the political leaders are saying in public, they are either unprepared or unwilling to take the poll plunge in the near future. Perhaps Khil Raj Regmi and election commissioners would also like to have a few more days in the sun. Even the parties opposed to the current Regmi-led dispensation, chiefly CPN-Maoist and Upendra Yadav-led MJF, would want some time to consolidate their constituencies before the eventual poll date.
It would help everyone if the political parties, the Election Commission and the government spoke with one voice. Currently, it appears that they have colluded to give out a confusing message: one which does not completely rule out June polls, even if such a possibility is ‘unlikely’. If indeed there can be no polls in June, as appears to be the case, they must have the guts to tell the people the truth. There is nothing wrong in holding elections on November-December if there can be broad political consensus. What is most important is getting as many political forces as possible on board, whether the polls are to be held in June or November. A controversial election could be way worse than no election at all. The two sets of parties (those represented in HLPC and those outside it) must resist brinksmanship and look to work out a mutually agreeable poll date. More than that, rather than needlessly (and endlessly) debate controversial issues at the eleventh hour, it is about time they let the people have their say.
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