Is the system functioning?

Nepal has adopted the present system since the country has been declared a federal republic after the political upheaval of 2006. However, of late, the political parties seem to be going against the spirit of the multi-party system, pushing the system towards failure.

In a multiparty democracy, parties contest or boycott any election, it depending on their choice. People also cast their votes for the parties of their choice. But in the recent local polls, the voters were denied their right to cast their votes for their parties thanks to the unnatural alliance of the parties to win the polls.

When the Nepali Congress supporters in many districts have no candidates of their parties, they were compelled to vote for the communists or make their votes invalid. In Chitwan, they voted for Maoist candidate, in Pokhara and Hetauda they cast votes for CPN (Unified Socialist) candidates. Moreover, even when the NC had no deputy mayor candidates in Kathmandu and Biratnagar, the traditional voters of the NC still cast votes on the tree election symbol, making their votes invalid. In Kathmandu, nearly 40,000 votes are said to be cast for the tree in the post of deputy mayor and in Biratnagar 36,000 votes were counted in the tree symbol of deputy mayor even when there was no NC candidate for the post in both the metropolis. The situation was similar in Lalitpur. As a result, the candidate of ruling coalition lost the elections. These high invalid votes show that the voters are against the electoral alliance, but still, the parties, especially NC president Sher Bahadur Deuba, seem to favour the election alliance. Moreover, independent candidates were elected in key cities including Kathmandu Metropolitan City as mayor. It was a revolt of the people against the political parties. Balendra Shah in Kathmandu and Harka Sampang in Dharan won the poll without any backing from the political parties. The youth and the voters gave them votes spontaneously. Similarly, in Dhangadhi, Janakpur and other few places independent and rebel candidates of NC won the poll.

These all show that the people in Nepal have been fed up with the political parties and their powercentric activities. And when the popularity of the parties has diminished, the political system collapses. It is what seems to be happening in Nepal. When the party leaders focus more on garbing power and amassing property, they resort to any method to remain in power or to reach the power. This is evident from the unnatural alliance of NC and Maoist Centre in the local elections. Considering these drawbacks, some political parties and leaders have started raising their voices for a direct-elected prime minister. RPP has demanded direct election to Prime Minister and adaptation of proportional election system. Similar are the views of Dr Baburam Bhattarai. Likewise, the presence of non-functioning province assemblies has also been questioned. They are doing nothing except adding a financial burden to the government as the nation has to spend to accommodate the assembly members, ministers and civil servants of the seven provinces.