Editorial
Three decades of non-party elections at the local levels under the panchayat system had to be replaced by party candidates after the 1990 change. Within the decade, grassroots partisan politics were being targeted by the Maoist rebellion at the cost of local workers whose forceful displacement by the rebels facilitated the Maoist change after repeated postponements of local elections and the gradual accommodation of the rebels in the all-party mechanisms at the local levels. Local-level election alignments changed radically after new elections alignments were forged for central elections to parliament where new alignments were forged bringing the Nepali Congress to government with the Maoist Center and the breakaway Socialists along with the tarai parties and minor lefts as close allies, ranging them against the UML in the current local level polls. Alignment decisions have their own practicalities in election politics, of course, the lay grassroots is puzzled though. Can central political party leaderships dictate to the voter who to vote for at the local level? Will the central choice hold?
It did not in the last elections. Discussions within the Congress where boss Sher Bahadur Deuba prevailed in sharing local level seats with his coalition reflect current political choices. Deuba is assuming a statesmanship posture where he accepts that his coalition parties have a key role in his assumption of state office and thus be given due place in the distribution of local level seats to forge long term alignments. His supporters even stress that this can even nurture a two-party system by forging a permanent rift in the communist movement with an eye to stability in the system. His detractors differ, however, in the process, they have recalled old wounds charging that their leadership is forcing workers to forget the excesses of the rebellion and intervening in the individual’s right to choose. The Mayoral seats allotted by the government coalition may be publicly clear as options. The candidates have been chosen. But, not the voter surely.
Whatever the follies of highly centralized political parties dictating to the grassroots was reflected in the Maoist rebellion. The experiment involving the reels in the choice of candidates in the last elections resulted in the rebels being fluid in the choice of partners. Now that this poll period sees a section of this Left squarely with Deuba once again, hope is being expressed that the partnership will finally be retained post-polls. If that is, the strategy yields positive results at the polls. K.P. Oli’s UML is worthy enough competition where squabbles for party tickets have long been overcome and little public discord exists on party candidates. And, then there is the unknown factor of the RPP reemergence. On the other hand, the voter this time is not lying tamely. Such experiments could cost Congress much.
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