Editorial
So much hype being created for the local elections cannot shift from the limelight to the focus on the purse. There is no indication that this round will be a cheaper poll. Accentuated further, as it is, by free for all market prices and the tightening of government purses in lieu of elections, the emphasis on fiscal adjustments is sure with an eye to the vote and the system would seem least bothered that the lay consumer will change their vote. They are by and large right. Steeper prices and market controls need not affect the vote since vote banks are secure and voter fluidity is least likely. It is to ensure this perhaps that government insists that the coalition must be effective in the floating of candidates, the fewer the official candidates the more chances of retaining the vote. Theoretically, though, this would be a near impossibility in local elections. The grassroots have many many reasons not to follow party diktat in the choice of their local candidates. It is for this reason why perhaps that there will be official candidates this round. Whether this will focus the vote on the choice of the chosen candidate remains to be seen.
In the first place, candidate adjustment notwithstanding, the elections will mean at least a cursory understanding that seat adjustments cannot remove a contest between the coalition government and the UML contestants who must tighten ranks at the grassroots in preparation for the coming phases of elections to higher tiers. Secondly, there will be candidates who will claim their presence as alternatives to the current cartel. The general conclusion is that government will not make many inroads into the UML vote bank. Congress hopes that UML excesses will draw votes to the Congress are likely to be shattered by a coalition that must carry deadweights at the expense of their organization. How the coalition will hold in the vote where the locally elected will be with the nature and type of local candidates must await the results. Of course, then the is the RPP factor. Rajendra Lingden’s nationwide rampage turning into organizational payload at the husting will, again, have to be watched.
It is here that reservations must be held. Has the change in RPP leadership actually touched upon the grassroots soul convincingly? It is one thing to romp the countryside with media backed mass meetings. It is another to cash the meetings with effective local workers investing in the voters convincingly. The spurt of public activity in the RPP is welcome surely. How dormant sympathies for the king and Hinduism will have been convincingly been wooed for participation remains to be seen yet despite the seeming public enthusiasm in demonstrations. If the meetings are as cosmetic as those of the other parties, the competition will have won hands down given their well-nurtured vote bank of cadre. The RPP Kathmandu roadshow only promises perfunctory gains and not a slide for the option in the vote. This is despite the media hype to the contrary.
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