Meet Electoral Promises

The Election Commission (EC), political parties, grassroots electorate and other stakeholders are now fully engaged in the process of the local polls slated for May 13. Offices of the returning officers have already been set up in all the 753 local level units to carry out the poll related works and set the stage for voting. With much enthusiasm and vigour, candidates representing different political parties and independent aspirants filed their nominations around the country on Sunday and Monday. Along with the registration of candidacies, the entire poll process has been set into motion as the political parties and candidates have advanced their door-to-door campaigns to communicate with and persuade the voters. Mass meetings and other election-oriented gatherings are also being organised to win the hearts and minds of the electorate. Even the far-flung rural areas have begun witnessing an increased presence of political leaders and cadres in the course of campaigns.

Most political parties taking part in the upcoming local polls have lately made their respective manifestoes public. Manifestoes are a printed declaration of the commitments, vision and views of a political party or individual candidates. To take their voters into confidence, the political parties and independent candidates come up with such written documents. The ruling Nepali Congress (NC) unveiled its manifesto for the upcoming local polls on Sunday. The main opposition CPN-UML has already made its manifesto public. Similarly, the CPN-Unified Socialist, Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal and Rastriya Prajatantra Party have come up with their electoral commitments and vision statements in their manifestos. These vision documents represent and reflect the principles and ideologies of the concerned parties on whose basis they want to put their plans into implementation. The documents also make their pledges to the people about the policies and programmes through which they want to serve the people. 

Naturally, manifestoes of the political parties tend to be catchy and attractive with promises address the sufferings and grievances of the people. They try to outdo and outstand their rivals with special offerings related to the problems of the people. But here, the parties need to take into account the practicability and realistic side of the pledges they make to the people. The plans and promises should suit the needs of the people and resource capacity to meet them. In this regard, people have to be aware and evaluative of the parties so that the candidates they elect can fulfil their dreams. Election is a fitting time to look back into the party manifestoes that were made public in the previous elections. Were the promises too tall to be fulfilled? How many of the promises were met and how many others were not? The electorate should be able to distinguish between false promises and true commitments. The present election is the time to make an assessment of the performance of the elected local representatives in the past five years.   

The nation had held historic elections, including that of the local levels, in 2017 after the promulgation of the new constitution. It was an important point of departure for the implementation of the constitution and institutionalisation of the hard won democratic system. Five years on, that process still continues as people are ready again for the crucial democratic exercise in ballots. At this important juncture, every stakeholder should work sincerely to make sure that the adult franchise is exercised in a free, fair and fearless manner.