Hoping for the best, Nepalis vote for Constituent Assembly-II

Hoping for the best, Nepalis vote for Constituent Assembly-II

-Surendra Phuyal in Kathmandu, Nepal
Skies are blue; the weather in the Himalayan nation can’t be better. Finally, the former Kingdom and one of the world’s newest republics, Nepal, is going to polls today, on Tuesday, 19 November, 2013. Nepalis seem excited for the most part. This is the second election to the constituent assembly which will write the new constitution of the federal republic. That’s a task the first constituent assembly, which was elected in May 2008, failed to complete in four years.

The constituent assembly will double as the parliament: 240 seats are up for grabs in the direct elections, and there are 335 seats in the proportional representation system, while 26 members will be nominated. Put together, it will be a jumbo constituent assembly with 601 members.

The elections are being opposed by an alliance of smaller parties led by a chunk former rebel Maoist party, but officials hope the polls will be largely peaceful. The elections are important because they will elect a new constituent assembly (which will complete the task of constitution-making).

In the short term, it will give Nepal a new elected government. A majority of the people are angry because the first constituent assembly – despite its mammoth size and heavy expenses from the state coffers – failed to complete its task to write the country’s new constitution and ensure political stability and economic prosperity.

Differences amongst the major political forces in the assembly – the liberal Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal UML on the one side, and the former rebel Maoist party and the Madhesi parties of southern Nepal on the other – came in the way of forging consensus mainly on tricky issues of federalism, number of federal states and the method of governance.

 

That challenge remains. Once elected, the constituent assembly will need to first and foremost hammer a deal on issues of federalism forms of governance. But that’s easier said than done with parties advocating and championing vertically opposite ideologies and philosophies. Nepal’s political and constitutional challenges remain unresolved as yet. But today’s elections will surely end the period of uncertainly and possibly herald a new era. At the polling stations reactions from voters are mixed: some are upbeat while others sound ‘ok-ok’. Over all, hopes are high.

(All photos by the author)