A Vote For Stability

The elections to the House of Representatives held on Thursday are expected to mark the beginning of stability in the country.  Since the epoch-making democratic movement of 1951, no government has completed a full five-year term, either due to the absence of a clear majority for a single party, disputes within ruling parties enjoying a majority, or other unforeseen political developments. The latest election held, six months after the Gen-Z movement, is, as indicated by the ongoing vote counting, certain to give an absolute majority to the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) to form a stable government. 

 Of the nine parliamentary elections held after the 1951 revolution, the latest one resembles the first parliamentary elections in 1959, in which the Nepali Congress won a two-thirds majority, defying the expectations of Kathmandu elites. The RSP appears to have repeated the feat by sweeping the Tarai and the Kathmandu Valley constituencies. The party has won almost all seats in the southern plains, all 15 seats in the Kathmandu Valley, and all seats in Jhapa and Morang districts. 

Now, Balendra Shah, the senior RSP leader who spearheaded the party's election campaign across the country, is set to become the new Prime Minister with the strength of the people's mandate. Although the powerful government led by BP Koirala after the 1959 elections survived only about one and a half years before being toppled by a royal coup, the new government will be free from such unwanted political accidents. The people have given the RSP an absolute majority in the hope of a stable government that will complete its full term, while maintaining good governance and accelerating the pace of development in the country. 

Although the people also gave majorities to the Nepali Congress in 1990 and 1999, those governments collapsed midway due to internal feuds within the party. People now expect the RSP to avoid such disputes, at least for the next five years, so that their aspirations to see a stable government completing a full term will not be thwarted. Above all, the election appears to have freed national politics from the generation of the politicians who have dominated it since 1990. Almost all leaders who rose from the People's Movement of 1990 either lost the election or chose not to contest it. 

CPN-UML chair KP Sharma Oli lost the election to RSP leader Shah in his home constituency in Jhapa, while Nepali Congress former president Sher Bahadur Deuba did not contest.  Former UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal lost the election in Rautahat, while Jhalanath Khanal remained out of the fray. However, Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda', who has remained a dominant political figure since the April Uprising of 2006, managed to win the elections in Rukum East.  Other seasoned leaders such as Nepali Congress's Shekhar Koirala and Bijay Gachchhadar, CPN_UML's Ishwar Pokharel, Bishnu Paudel, Shankar Pokharel and Dev Raj Ghimire also lost the election to RSP candidates. This means the new parliament could be without many experienced lawmakers. It will be dominated by young leaders, as demanded by the Gen-Z movement of September last year. 

The elections concluded peacefully without any violent incidents or the need for re-polling, which had been a common occurrence in past elections. The weather also remained clear. When the interim government led by Sushila Karki announced elections within six months immediately after the violent Gen-Z movement in which 76 people were killed, many believed that it would be impossible to hold them under such circumstances. However, the government succeeded in conducting the elections on the stipulated date. Prime Minister Karki, her ministers, and all political parties deserve credit for the successful conclusion of the elections. The neighbouring and friendly countries have congratulated Nepal on holding the elections. The RSP, which emerged victorious, should now leave no stone unturned to meet the people's expectations.