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As the country heads towards the elections on Nov 20, one could ponder about the emergence of leadership from these electoral contests. A general understanding is that the same crop of old leaders will make it in the fray. But if one is to look at the source from which a new breed of leadership is to emerge, then an interesting picture comes into play. Unlike in the past when the party affiliated youth or student bodies produced future leaders, this time around (possibly starting a decade or so) a different bunch of leaders are making it to the leadership lineup. One of the segments of these leaders is those that are now in the leadership position of the local bodies. The other segment constitutes those that may be termed as technocrats. The likelihood of the emergence of these two segments as possible leaders of party politics in near future is a telling story of the changing political, economic and cultural dynamics of party politics in Nepal. In the recent past, including during the partyless Panchayat period, both youth, student and other sister organizations of the political parties played a strong role to propagate the ideology of their respective parties. In fact, during the Panchayat period these allied institutions served as the front organizations for the then banned parties. The present day second tier leadership of these parties actually comes from these very fraternal organizations. The story of these organizations in the last decade or so is, however, one of sorry state. Ever since the political parties were seated firmly in the control of the state affairs following the declaration of republic, the mother parties started treating their fraternal organization with contempt. The senior party leadership increasingly sought to erode inner- party democracy and their first casualties were these allied organizations. The once vibrant fraternal organization slowly fell into decay to the extent that the leadership for these organizations is no longer elected rather than nominated by the senior leadership of the party.   Leader/businessperson In the preceding section, the article demonstrated how the traditional route for the party leadership has weakened. As a result we see a new set of leaders emerging for future leadership. These are people who have won the local elections. These leaders may have come from the aforementioned fraternal organizations of their respective parties. But that is not a very important marker. What really counts is the fact that the person concerned not only enjoys a popular base (not necessarily in the positive sense of the term) but is also financially independent. The elected member of the local body may be a local businessperson or a contractor. Therefore, a new crop of leaders are in the making who are themselves patrons and don’t rely on the business community for resources. This marks an important departure in the leadership race. The present crop of leadership of parties’ fraternal organizations doesn’t necessarily have the same leverage as their compatriots leading the local bodies. Additionally, those elected to local bodies also act as an important life line for the parties when it comes to securing resources. Hence, they generate their own network, which when scaled up can be used at national level as well. Further, it is these elected members in the local bodies with whom the public will identify the parties as they encounter these leaders on an everyday basis. Technocrat as policy leader The other segment of the potential leadership comes from people with technocratic/bureaucratic expertise. These individuals necessarily don’t have to come from the rank and file of the parties, unlike in the past. The history of the political parties suggest that a section of the party leaders themselves acquired training as technocrats and then served as policy experts to their parties. The picture is somewhat different this time around. You now have a group of experts who have not risen in the party as cadre, but have made it to the top by showing their credentials as experts with considerable experience in international/intergovernmental organizations. These individuals have very little ownership in the party concerned as they have no or minuscule experience with the party governance and its working systems. Also, these leaders ‘parachute’ to the center and influence various tiers of the government. In fact, they become the sought after pundits as they also receive the backing of international institutions/centers running both political and financial global systems. In the end The preceding sections have shown how a new leadership is likely to emerge in the Nepali party system. If these are any indications to go by, then a segment of the aspiring leaders who are patronized by the top party leadership will find it difficult to compete with the aforementioned two sections of potential leaders. The former is neither financially autonomous nor has enough technical expertise to prove their mettle. The days after the elections could point to interesting directions from the perspective of future leadership.

The local level election held on May 13 was the second of its kind after Nepal adopted federalism. It elected representatives in six metropolitan cities, 11 sub-metropolitan cities, 276 municipalities, and 460 rural municipalities. On Nov 20, the country will once again head to voting stations to elect representatives to the federal parliament and seven provincial assemblies. The polls, which will elect 825 representatives in the federal parliament and provincial assemblies, are being held in a single phase. Here is an explainer on the elections.

How is the federal parliament formed?

The House of Representatives (lower house) and the National Assembly (upper house) make up the federal parliament.  The lower house has 275 seats of which, 60 percent (165 seats) are chosen through first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system, while the remaining 40 percent (110 seats) will be elected through a proportional representation (PR) basis. The PR system aims to ensure representation of women, Dalits, Madhesis, indigenous groups, and minorities in the governing structures. Article 85 of the constitution says: “Unless dissolved earlier, the term of the HoR shall be of five years.”

The previous federal and provincial elections took place in two phases in November and December 2017. So, this December will be the end of the five-year term of parliament. The constitution has not envisioned a parliamentary vacuum of over six months; hence it was necessary to conduct parliamentary elections within six months of December 2022. But Nepal didn’t enter this period, as the government announced the elections before December. 

However, the Nov 20 election is not for the National Assembly (NA) or the upper house. The NA is a 59-member permanent body, with 56 members chosen by an electoral college consisting of provincial assembly members and village and municipal executive members. The president nominates three members. It has a term of six years, with one-third of its members retiring every two years on a rotational basis.

What about provincial assemblies? 

Provincial assemblies are unicameral legislative bodies. The numbers of provincial lawmakers vary from one province to another. Unless dissolved earlier according to the constitution, the term of these assemblies is five years. Their term may be extended for a period not exceeding one year in cases where a proclamation or order of the state of emergency is in effect.  As provincial assembly elections were held simultaneously with the federal elections in 2017, the end of their tenure was also in December 2022. Under the FPTP component, twice as many members are elected to provincial assemblies as are elected to the HoR. And just like the lower house of federal parliament, 60 percent of provincial assembly seats are filled through the FPTP system and 40 percent through PR basis. 

Province 1 has 93 seats, Madhes has 107, Bagmati has 110, and Gandaki has 60 seats in their respective assemblies. Similarly, Lumbini Province has 87 seats, Karnali has 40, and Sudurpaschim has 53 seats. Altogether, there are 550 seats in the seven provincial assemblies.

What is the role of the Election Commission?

The Election Commission is a constitutional body responsible for conducting and monitoring elections, as well as registering parties and candidates and reporting election outcomes. However, it cannot announce dates for any election. Only the government holds this right.  For a long time, the commission has been making a case for its right to do so. According to former commission officials, giving the commission such a mandate will ensure timely elections. As the government has the right to announce dates, the ruling parties often tend to declare elections at their convenience.

Is there any change in our electoral system? 

Even though there was a debate about changing the electoral system, Nepal is still following the same election system: a mixed voting system based on FPTP and PR. Ruling coalition partner CPN (Maoist Center) had proposed a completely proportional election system, citing that elections are becoming costly and adopting a fully PR electoral system was a solution. Other parties like the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML did not accept the proposition. A party has to cross the election threshold of three percent of the overall valid vote to be allocated a seat under the PR method. And to be a national party, a party should have at least one seat from FPTP and one from PR in the lower house. 

Who can vote?

Those Nepalis who are 18 years old and are registered on the voters’ list of the poll body can vote. As soon as the government announced the election, the Election Commission stopped the voter registration process. And if you didn’t register before the cut-off time, you missed the voting rights this time. The next voter registration process will resume soon after the upcoming elections ends.  If you are a registered voter, you can vote by showing your Voter ID or other government-issued IDs at your respective polling station. Newly registered voters can collect their Voter IDs from the polling centers.  

How many types of ballot papers are there this time? 

Each voter has to vote on four separate ballot papers this time. There are two ballots (FPTP and PR) for the HoR and two (FPTP and PR) for the Provincial Assembly. For the FPTP election system of the HoR and the PA, the ballot paper has the election symbol and other details printed in red on a white background. While in the PR election system, the ballot paper has black color printed on a white background.  Remember, under the FPTP system, you are directly voting for a candidate of your constituency. Under the PR system, you are voting for a party and the party, if it passes the stipulated threshold, will send as many PR candidates as the seats it won to parliament. The parties have already submitted their PR list to the commission and they will be called up in an already-fixed serial order.  There will be four separate ballot boxes as well. Each voter will first get the FPTP ballot paper for the HoR election. After casting the vote in the respective ballot box, the voter will get a PR ballot paper. The same pattern will follow for the provincial assembly. 

How to reduce invalid votes?

There are a few things you need to do to make your votes count. When you get your ballot paper, check if it has the signature of the voting officer. Use the ‘Swastik’ stamp, which is available in your polling booth, to mark your ballot paper. And make sure to stamp it clearly. Don’t use more or less ink and just stamp it once.

You should only stamp a single electoral symbol on each ballot paper to make your vote valid. Do not cast a vote for multiple symbols. You can neither divide your vote for two symbols. Make sure that your stamp is inside the set box. Do not put your stamp outside the box. It must not overlap with another, horizontally or vertically to make the vote valid.  The last part is folding your ballot paper, which is where many people fail. Fold it in a way that the ink does not get smudged or leave an imprint on any other symbol. Be mindful of where the ink stamp is and where it can leave an imprint. It is also a good idea to make sure that the ink has dried before you fold the paper. 

You also need to maintain the secrecy of your vote. Do not fold the ballot paper in a way the face of the paper is turned outside. Visit the social media of the Election Commission for a better video graphical explanation of how to make your vote valid.  

Why is there no electronic voting machine?

According to Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Thapaliya, the commission had no problem using the electronic voting machine (EVM), but there was no political consensus regarding its use. The Election Commission had held talks with the leaders of several political parties several times to introduce EVMs, but to no avail. 

Could Nepalis outside Nepal vote? 

In 2018, the Supreme Court issued a directive to the government, parliament, and the Election Commission to make necessary arrangements to ensure voting rights for all Nepalis living abroad. But this order has been ignored. None of the stakeholders have any valid reason as to why this is.  Even though the Maoist Center and the Nepali Congress had said that they would make it possible for Nepalis living abroad to vote, there have not been any positive results. The Election Commission officials say that the parties lack consensus on the matter. Election experts also suggest that political commitment, necessary laws, and resources are a must for this provision. So Nepalis based abroad cannot vote in this election. 

What will the country get after the polls?

Same as now, a multi-party, federal democratic republic and parliamentary form of government will be formed after the election. As soon as the members of parliament are elected, it will elect a prime minister, who is the executive head. The leader of the party that wins a simple majority is invited to form the government. The prime minister will then form a cabinet. Similarly, the members of the provincial assemblies will choose chief ministers to run the respective provincial governments.  As for the president and vice president, they are constitutional posts with nominal power. An electoral college formed by the two houses of federal parliament and Provincial Assembly members will elect them.

The federal and provincial elections are just days away. Preparations are in full swing. The excitement is palpable, with election-related discussions at every home and tea shop. But for people with disabilities, it’s a tricky situation. Without disabled-friendly infrastructure and facilities, they will have to face many hurdles to cast their votes. Some have chosen not to vote, fearing the humiliation they will have to face at the polling  when they can’t fill out the ballot papers or reach the ballot box. The inability to exercise a fundamental right, as guaranteed by the Constitution of Nepal 2015, is infuriating, says Gajendra Budathoki, journalist and editor of Taksar News. Budathoki is wheelchair-bound and has been, over the years, raising his voice to make elections more disabled-friendly. He laments nothing has been done to make the elections inclusive and accessible to all. “The government and the Election Commission could do more if they wanted to. But they don’t. This is nothing new,” he says. Budathoki recalls the 2017 local elections when supporters of a certain party took him to the polling station, almost a kilometer away from his home in Kapan, but they were nowhere to be found once he had voted. The road wasn’t in a good condition and it was quite steep too. Budathoki had a difficult time getting himself home. This time around as well, various parties’ cadres have approached him, promising to facilitate the voting process but he is wary. He will have to figure out how to work around the issues or simply stay at home. Article 42 of the constitution states that people with disabilities shall have the right to participate in state matters on the basis of the principle of inclusion. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2017 states those with disabilities have the right to be candidates as well as cast votes fearlessly and voluntarily, with or without help. Despite these protections in place, people with disabilities are marginalized and hence not granted the equal rights they have been promised. “It’s appalling that the Election Commission takes so much money to prepare for the elections but cites lack of budget where disabled-friendly facilities are concerned,” says Budathoki. Ultimately, the government and the political parties are at fault, he adds. They are blatantly disregarding the law by not including the disabled population in state affairs. Budathoki feels the government doesn’t include issues of people with disability in its discussions with the commission, which in turn gets an excuse not to act. The Election Commission, however, maintains they have done a lot to make the elections as inclusive and disabled-friendly as possible. Shaligram Sharma Poudel, spokesperson for the commission, says the local authorities have been instructed to look into this and to facilitate the process, including making ramps, rope-markings, as well as running awareness programs for volunteers on how to handle people with disabilities. “We will give vehicle passes to people with disabilities so that they can get to the voting station easily. They can also bring someone to help them,” says Poudel. But people with disabilities aren’t assured. Those ApEx spoke to say these are just superficial provisions to mask the EC’s lack of efforts to include voters with disabilities in the upcoming elections. Only 100 out of the 22,000 polling stations have some sort of disabled-friendly infrastructure. These too have been set up with the help of the National Federation of the Disabled, Nepal (NFDN) and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). The commission says the 100 polling booths have been set up as models for future elections. The commission seems to have a ‘something is better than nothing’ approach to inclusiveness. The EC doesn’t have any data on the number of voters with disabilities. Electoral materials too haven’t been readied in required formats such as audio, Braille, sign language, and easy-to-read. However, the commission still insists it has worked on making the election inclusive. Surya Prasad Arya, information officer, EC, says they are determined to abide by the constitution and even have a separate budget to make polls disabled-friendly. In July, the commission informed IFES that 100 booths wouldn’t be enough and sought additional help from them. There was no response, he says. But people with disabilities wonder why the government looks for outside assistance without doing the bare minimum itself. What is the election budget spent on when the commission seeks help from the private sector for most of its needs, muses Budathoki. Kiran Shilpakar, chairperson of the National Association of Physical Disabled-Nepal, says people with disabilities are denied their rights time and again on different pretexts. The elections are no different. Be it a tight budget or not enough time to plan, the election body has only excuses to offer. As a once in a five-year event, claiming to be pressed for time shows a lack of empathy, he says. From registering to vote to voting, everything is an ordeal without disabled-friendly infrastructure, say people with disabilities. Journalist Budathoki recalls a harrowing incident when he went to get himself registered on the voter’s list. “There was no accessible way for me to reach the office in my wheelchair. I had to be carried like a sack of potatoes. It was embarrassing,” he says. Then there’s also the issue of whether the commission can ensure fair elections when a section of the population is sidelined. Budathoki says various political parties try to convince people with disabilities to vote for them by playing on their emotions. It’s not uncommon for parties to assign workers to take people with disabilities to voting centers. This can result in the misuse of votes especially when someone requires help filling out the ballot papers. It was found that, in the 2017 federal and provincial elections, votes of the visually impaired and those with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities were misused. Shilpakar adds that the government doesn’t want to address the issue as there’s a lot of ground to cover. People will have different kinds of needs according to the nature of their disability. Some have mobility troubles, some can’t see or hear, while others have intellectual limitations, he says. As a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities-2006, Nepal can’t remain indifferent to their issues, he adds. Moreover, election is a state event and every citizen has the right to vote. Not making it accessible for people with disabilities is a violation of their basic human rights. Rama Dhakal, vice-president of NFDN, says they have always urged the election body to make voting easy for the disabled. There has to be a lot more public-private partnership to ensure those with disabilities aren’t excluded by the state simply for the lack of infrastructure. The 100 polling stations that NFDN has worked on in collaboration with the IFES are by no means enough but the initiative could be a start of making future elections inclusive, she says. “I take this as a milestone but more work needs to be done,” adds Dhakal.

Women’s representation in Nepali politics has always been minimal. Although Nepal is one of the few countries with female presidents, it still lacks an adequate number of women representatives in parliament. The number of women representatives in parliament have been fluctuating since the first general election of 1959, which had only one woman lawmaker, Shree Dwarikadevi Thakurini. In the subsequent parliamentary elections, Nepal elected 8, 7, 12, 197, 176, and 90 women lawmakers respectively. The constitution of 2015 does not mandate to have a certain percentage of women in the House of Representatives, but only dictates that there must be one-third women representation when considering the elected women from both first-past-the-post (FPTP) and proportional candidacy. “Because there is no such mandate for the House of Representatives, parties refrain from putting female politicians forward in the FPTP,” says Dila Sangraula, a Nepali Congress leader. “Our society and political parties are not ready to see women in leadership positions.” Amrita Thapa Magar, of CPN (Maoist Center), echoes Sangraula. “Our society is evidently patriarchal. Party members and even the public are still not well-adjusted to seeing women in powerful positions.” Analyzing the past data, we see a significant increase in the number of women representatives in the election of 2008, when 197 women representatives were elected to the Constituent Assembly. “This was because the Maoist party that had just joined mainstream politics gave a higher number of FPTP candidacy to women representatives,” says Lok Raj Baral, political analyst. The party didn’t maintain that number in the following elections. Even in this year’s federal election, women candidacy in FTPT is high, but most of them, according to Baral, belong to parties that are unlikely to win the election. Old established parties have fielded fewer women candidates. “This automatically decreases female participation in the House of Representatives,” adds Baral. Krishna Khanal, political analyst, says that the male-dominated political parties of Nepal are not willing to make any effort to increase women representation in  any field, not just politics and parliament. The possibility of a female politician winning an election becomes even slimmer when they run independently. This year’s local elections can attest to this fact. When campaigning independently for the seat of deputy mayor for Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Sunita Dangol didn’t get as much support as people showed after she joined the CPN-UML. Most people in Nepal still favor parties over candidates, making it quite difficult for even the worthy candidates to win an election. “The established parties are already male dominated. Their leaders and central members are mostly men. There’s no space for the female candidates,” says Khanal. Sangraula says it’s also up to women leaders to fight for their rightful place in Nepali politics. “Expecting someone to leave their position to increase the number of female representation will take us nowhere.” She believes that unlike political parties, their leaders and members, the general public is highly in favor of women leaders. “The majority of the people, I believe, are willing to support a promising female leader. It’s just the political parties, their leaders and members who aren’t willing to trust women,” adds Sangraula. Magar agrees with Sangraula. “I can confidently say that most Nepalis are willing to put their trust on a female politician.” Khanal, on the other hand, does not agree with Sangraula. He believes that Nepali society is still male dominated and that it is still not ready to be led by women. “It’s the unwillingness of our society to elect female leaders that is affecting the female candidacy,” he claims. “No party will field a woman candidate knowing that the people are unlikely to vote for her.” Sangraula says a constitutional mandate is the only way to ensure female participation in politics and change our society’s attitude towards women leaders. Sangraula, Magar and other women in politics are hopeful for a better future for women in Nepali politics, though. They say increased political awareness among Nepali youths and the growing acceptance for an inclusive society are reasons to be optimistic about. “As the society changes its attitude, the parties, too, will be more accepting of women politicians,” says Sangraula.