Keep Electoral Promises

Yug Bahadur

The House of Representatives and Provincial Assembly elections are fast approaching in the country now. The elections will take place soon after the two greatest festivals of most Nepalis, Dashain and Tihar, are over. How political leaders canvass during this festive occasion is also being observed with keen interest by the general public. In spite of the criticism of the political leaders who, the people feel are not doing their best for the general public, they still are very interested in casting their votes.

If one is to go by the results of the local level elections some months ago, it can be assumed that more fresh faces will be seen after the upcoming elections for members in the parliament. This will mean that independent and young candidates will also have to be included in the government after the polls at the central level and the provinces as well. This will be a jolt for the traditional parties, but choosing the right candidates will go a long way in steering the nation correctly in the right direction. Even in the present alliance, there have been reports in the major media outlets, how each party is demanding for more representation than the alliance can give to any of the partners. 

Difficult task

This has made naming the probable candidates a difficult task, but still it is positive that the parties in alliance are holding discussions on a ‘war footing’ and they will come to an understanding soon. Another thing that has been made clear, as per the media, is that the individuals who have been elected through the proportional method, will not be repeated this time. Not that other parties, including the opposition CPN-UML, are not having the same problems, they are also finding it difficult to choose different candidates in different places. 

Even at present, due to the differences among the top parties, one has been compelled to witness party alignment with leaders joining some rival parties. Most of the times, this attitude gives the leaders less time to address the problems of the provinces and also at local levels. More woes have been added by the constant reports of cases of corruption and also arrears in the funds taken by the previous leaders. The figures are mind-blowing and it is sad that so much government funds are being misused, which actually should have been used in constructive projects and productive sectors.

The leaders of different parties, whether big or small, should come up with more development and productive programmes, so that the people will not be confused while voting in the upcoming polls. One writer has rightly said in TRN, that issues like the citizenship amendment bill, for example, should not be made into ‘political agenda’. But now it seems, not only political leaders, but the media people, the intellectuals and other experts also are giving too much space only in voicing their opinion on political issues, before election time, in the print media and also in TV talk programmes. 

On which side they belong to and which political parties they support can easily be made out even by a mere layman. This should be an embarrassment to the so-called experts, who call themselves ‘independent’. The people want to hear and read more about development issues and how the big parties can bring about progress in the country’s economy and provide relief to the general people, besides repeatedly hearing only about political agenda which will only be a ‘gain’ for the competing parties and their leaders and not for the impoverished people.

It is time for the major parties to feel the pulse of the people and seriously do their homework, in not only wooing the masses for getting votes, but also in remembering the promises made by them and thus bring some sense of relief to the people, who showed in the last local polls, that they simply don’t trust the parties but they would rather vote for independent candidates. Many independent candidates winning in the forthcoming election would also make the parties weaker and like written in another article in TRN, snap polls should not be made into a habit. Such snap polls have slowly become a regular happening in Italy it says and no one has to be reminded how that European country has seen its economy rapidly going down during this unstable period.

Tough time

Here the parties in the ruling alliance are having a tough time in firmly being united. However, top leaders of both the Nepali Congress and the CPN-Maoist Centre have made it public that the distribution of seats will be announced within a week and the names of their candidates will also be given within a fortnight. The UML has also given such assurances. In this regard, we must accept that the top level politicians have acted in a responsible manner and if such maturity is shown in the future also, we will not be an unstable country with a weak economy.

The most important point for the political parties is, the majority of the Nepali people are very aware of political issues and equally important is the fact that they also have much patience on a democratic system delivering not only liberty but also a strong economy for them. But such assets of the people should not be taken for granted and in the coming elections, they must show equal respect to the people who have always supported the political leaders. It can only be hoped that instead of only working for political gains, the political parties will also have programmes for the prosperity of the people and keep the promises they make to them before the elections.

(Yug is a freelancer.)