Hinterland villagers less aware of November 20 elections

By Dhyan Kulung

Sankhuwasabha, Nov.1: Chandra Bahadur Kulung of Tamku, Silichong Rural Municipality 3, in Sankhuwasabha district is now busy harvesting cardamom. As he is always busy with his cardamom farm, Kulung does not know much about the upcoming elections. 

“I heard from the radio that the elections are taking place, I know nothing more about polls than this,” he said. 

Election fever has gripped the urban areas with the elections to the House of Representatives and Provincial Assemblies coming closer. 

However, the election fever has not yet reached the locals of Tamkhu, a remote settlement of the Himalayan district, as the political parties and election candidates are busy wooing voters only in urban areas.                          

Even some locals are unaware that the federal and provincial elections are going to take place on November 20. 

During the previous elections, the party leaders and election candidates used to reach the doorsteps of the locals, with several assurances, some even visiting the farm lands, where villagers used to work. 

But this year, leaders of major political parties and their candidates have not reached the village yet, except some small gatherings at the municipality level. The parties have concentrated their election campaigns on the densely populated regions, ignoring the voters of the remote rural areas like Bhotkhola, Makalu, Sabhapokhari and Silichong in the district. 

Deepak Khadka, a candidate of the Nepali Congress from the ruling coalition, said there was not much electioneering this time like in the previous elections due to the election code of conduct enforced by the Election Commission. 

Khadka informed that though they had not reached each village of the constituency, they had been holding discussions with the local representatives of all local levels of the municipality. 

The door-to-door campaign have been carried out in densely populated areas and now the campaign would soon be concentrated at the village level.  

CPN-UML also said that it was not possible to carry out door-to-door campaign like in the previous election, as it was impossible for the candidates to reach all the houses by themselves, said CPN-UML candidate Rajendra Gautam.

However, the representatives of the candidates, party leaders and cadres would reach each household, he said. 

Even the candidates of the small parties and independent candidates have not been able to reach the remote areas of the district. 

Due to the lack of election activities in the villages, election fever has not touched the locals. This might result in lower turn out. 

District Election Office, Sankhuwasabha informed though the presence of parties and candidates in the remote areas is low, preparations are being made to deliver election education programme to every household. 

Sankhuwasabha has only one constituency for HoR and two constituencies for the Provincial Assembly. 

There are 12 candidates for the HoR election, including two independents. There are eight candidates, including one independent, for Provincial Assembly (A) and 9 candidates, including two independents, for Provincial Assembly (B). There 117,005 voters in Sankhuwasabha, which has 162 polling stations.