Abiding By Poll Code

After the Gen-Z movement of September 8 and 9, 2025, which overthrew the powerful coalition government of the CPN-UML and the Nepali Congress, the present interim government led by Prime Minister Sushila Karki was formed, and the House of Representatives (HoR) was dissolved. With the dissolution of the parliament, the main task of the interim government was to hold fresh elections to the House of Representatives, and it announced the elections for March 5 according to its mandate.  

Four months after the epoch-making youth movement, the interim government has almost completed the preparations to hold the elections on the scheduled date. While the political parties have already submitted the closed lists of their candidates contesting the elections under the proportional representative (PR) election system, they are preparing to field their candidates to contest the election under the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) election system on Tuesday, and the parties are now bracing to finalise the names of their candidates for all 165 electoral constituencies. 

As the main duty of the government and the Election Commission is to hold the elections in a fair, free, and fear-free manner, the EC has enforced the election code of conduct, 2082, effective from Monday midnight. Now not only the political parties and their candidates contesting the polls, but also the government, media and other institutions need to abide by the code of conduct to ensure clean, fair, fear-free and transparent elections. Adherence to the election code of conduct is very important to regulate the behaviours of the political parties, candidates, government officials, media and voters during elections. 

The code of conduct prevents the misuse of state power and resources by the party in power to influence the election results. It strengthens the democratic norms and neutrality of the state mechanism by separating political interest from government duties. The code of conduct bars using children for campaigns. Likewise, the government employees, teachers, and staff are also barred from participating in election campaigns. The transfer of government officials is restricted, apart from those mobilised for election-related duties, to ensure the political neutrality of the government officials. 

The candidates influencing voters through money in both cash and kind is something that has plagued the election in Nepal. Despite the EC doing its best to ensure financial transparency in election-related activities, keeping track of informal expenses in the election has been an uphill task for the EC. The code of conduct has made it mandatory for candidates to pay the election-related expenses through designated bank accounts and disclose the estimated expenditure. However, the candidates often tend to find loopholes to influence the voters by spending lavishly in an attempt to win the elections. This has been happening for decades. 

The main question now is how the EC will monitor informal expenses during the election campaign.  Therefore, strict adherence to the code of conduct by all stakeholders -- political parties, candidates, government officials, media and citizens -- is essential for strengthening democracy and good governance. The March 5 elections hold special significance in the history of Nepal, as they could be a milestone towards strengthening democracy and establishing good governance, because the main demands of the Gen-Z movement were for good governance by controlling corruption.  

The elections have the potential to change the fate of Nepali people who have been marred for years by corruption, nepotism, and unequal distribution of resources. To ensure this change, the elections should be conducted in a free, fair and impartial manner with strong adherence to and enforcement of the code of conduct.