Major step

CA election by June



The country is taking some decisive steps towards timely CA polls. With the appointment of office bearers in the Election Commission, another major hurdle to June polls has been cleared. But make no mistake: the new commissioners will have their task cut out. In the three-month period between now and mid-June, they will have to work on a war footing to update the voter roll. By the looks of things, their work is likely to be hindered every step of the way by forces that do not want polls, certainly not under the leadership of Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi.



Already, there have been disruptive activities by Mohan Baidya-led CPN-Maoist, like seizure of vital equipment form voter registration centers in various districts. If CPN-Maoist and other smaller parties continue to feel left out of the political and constitutional process by the ‘four party syndicate’, such incidents are likely to be repeated, seriously jeopardizing the prospects of June polls. The newly reinforced Election Commission will be helpless to deal with this situation without the help of the technocratic government and the four political forces behind it.



Any resort to violence to disrupt CA polls is condemnable, and no political party has the right to deprive Nepali people of the right to exercise timely franchise. At the same time, some of the concerns of the 33 disgruntled political parties led by CPN-Maoist are hard to dismiss. They rightly claim that if the four forces get a free rein in vital appointments and government functioning from the bully pulpit of the High Level Political Mechanism (HLPM), other parties could be at an electoral disadvantage. Yes, the Big Four played a crucial role in giving the country a breakthrough through the CJ-led government.




But now that the biggest hurdle to CA polls has been cleared, the HLPM should be able to take all political forces into confidence, which means including them in all vital deliberations ahead of the polls. If the HLPM is seen as pulling the levers of the supposedly neutral election government, it could seriously undermine the credibility of the whole electoral exercise.



Once again, the need for all political forces that want to see the consolidation of post-2006 changes to work together for free, fair and timely CA polls cannot be overemphasized. We believe June polls are very much possible if all stakeholders in the current electoral process are committed to the end result. As we have been maintaining, it is important that CA polls be held by June, as far as possible: the longer the technocratic government (which came into office without people’s mandate) under Khil Raj Regmi continues in office, the harder it will be for it to retain the credibility to hold polls. In that case, all kinds of unwanted pressure could come to bear on the non-political government.



There are plenty of skeptics who question if the big parties are really committed to polls. It is a great opportunity for the Big Four to show that they can once again rise above partisan interests for the greater good of the country.

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