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 It is incredible to see the all-pow­erful federal government of KP Oli stumble so badly—and on so many fronts. The government’s reluctance to devolve powers to the provincial and local levels has resulted in a lot of bad blood between the three tiers of government, not a healthy sign for an infant federal state. Even the chief ministers from the PM’s own party are rebelling against what they see as Singhadurbar’s attempts to increase its powers at their expense.

The Oli government had to beat a shameful retreat from the Guthi bill, prepared without consulting key stakeholders. The prime minister’s recent Europe trip also proved to be a disastrous folly, a perfect example of how not to ‘diversify’ away from India and China: unlike what the prime minister seems to believe, the number of countries he visits cannot be the yardstick of a successful diver­sification policy.

Economically, too, the country is in a shambles. There is a lopsided concentration of resourc­es, including the annual budget, at the center. The expected economic growth has failed to materialize. The partial health of the economy is owing to the good monsoon of the past few years, and to the continuous inflow of remittances. Otherwise, the banks are over-leveraged and short of cash; a real estate bubble is building; the foreign account deficit is reaching a troubling level; and the Nepali rupee is vulnerable to the unpredictable global economy.

There are many other shortcom­ings of the Oli government. But he has also done some good. The land­mark trade and transit protocol has been signed with China; relations with India have been normalized; countless regulations to implement federalism have been passed; and the separatist group of CK Raut has been brought into the national main­stream.

Yet the strong federal government could have done so much more. It is hobbled by corruption, intra-par­ty feuds, and the prime minister’s self-serving working style. What’s more, this government with an over­whelming public mandate is a threat to liberal values. The eroding legit­imacy of the two-third Oli govern­ment bodes ill for the health of the Nepali democracy.

By Ranjan Hari Koirala | Kathmandu

 As part of its plan to expand broadband networks across the country, Nepal Telecom has called applications for build­ing such networks and pro­viding internet services in 14 additional districts. With this, Nepal Telecom expects all rural municipalities of Nepal to have broadband internet access within a year.Nepal Telecom plans to make use of the Rural Tele­communications Develop­ment Fund (RTDF) to expand broadband connection to the 14 districts via optical net­works. Under the plan, broad­band hybrid networks will be built and internet/data access connectivity provided in all municipalities, rural munici­palities, ward offices, health centers, health posts and pub­lic educational institutions (secondary and higher sec­ondary schools). The call for application states that com­panies interested in apply­ing should have contributed a minimum of Rs 1 million to the RTDF in the past three years. They should also have a minimum of 1,000 km trans­mission networks in operation and 25,000 (fixed) internet or data subscribers.

The project is expected to cost Rs 2.8 billion for the four districts in Province 1 (Ilam, Jhapa, Morang and Udayapur), Rs 600 million for the four districts in Province 5 (Gulmi, Palpa, Argakhachi, Pyuthan) and Rs 1.2 billion for the six other districts. Two years ago, NT had signed contracts with various companies for similar work in 60 districts. Purush­ottam Khanal, chairman of Nepal Telecom, claims 60 percent of the work has been completed.

Internet connection is now available in 15 earthquake-af­flicted districts under Broad­band Access Network, accord­ing to NT data. But there have been complaints that some of these districts remain uncon­nected.

Under the project, the first contract was with World­link Communications Pvt Ltd. Among the projects that Worldlink bagged, one is com­plete. NT informs more than 85 percent of the work has been completed in the north-east­ern districts of Dolpa, Mugu, Jumla and Humla.

Subisu Cablenet Pvt Ltd is supposed to start providing internet services in 1,205 loca­tions in 8 Tarai districts (Dha­nusha, Siraha, Saptari, Mahot­tari, Bara, Parsa, Rautahat and Sarlahi) from July 16. As only 55 percent work is complete, the company has extended its deadline by 6 months.

Vianet Communications Pvt Ltd also has been unable to finish work on time. By the deadline day last December, only 50 percent work had been completed.

Mercantile Communications Pvt Ltd had bagged two proj­ects, under which it would make internet access avail­able in 1,183 locations in six districts (Achham, Bajhang and Bajura in the west and Taplejung, Sankhuwasabha and Solukhumbu in the east). While one project has been completed, work on the sec­ond one is still ongoing.

Similarly, Techminds Net­work Pvt Ltd had bagged the contract to provide broadband services in three mid-western districts (Surkhet, Dailekh and Salyan). Work was stalled in the initial phase due to a court case. Although the case has been settled for a while now, Nepal Telecom informs that the company has only recently submitted ‘Network Diagrams’ for approval.

 Small political parties have an important role in a diverse soci­ety like Nepal. Riding on a global trend, the more recognized bigger parties are becoming populist. In this process, they often abandon minority groups and important agendas that they are reluctant to adopt fearing a populist backlash. In Nepal’s case, the smaller parties in the past have carried the agendas of individual ethnic groups, religions and regions. Says General Secretary of CPN (ML) CP Mainali, which cur­rently does not have any seat in the federal lower house: “Fringe parties have a big role in ensuring an inclu­sive political system.”

But these smaller political outfits in Nepal are facing an existential threat following a 2017 law that made it mandatory for political parties to secure at least one directly-elected seat and at least three percent of pro­portional representation votes for them to be recognized as a national party. This provision drastically cut down the number of parties repre­sented in the parliament.

After the first (2008) and the sec­ond (2013) Constituent Assembly elections, there were 25 and 30 parties represented in the national assembly, respectively. But following the 2017 federal election, after the new electoral law came into effect, only nine political parties and one independent lawmaker won seats under the FPTP category, and just five parties were elected under the PR category. As of now there are just four recognized national parties. The lawmakers elected from other parties are represented in the parlia­ment as individual candidates.

But the big political parties decid­ed on a threshold for a reason. “Earlier, the presence of so many parties in the parliament made deci­sion-making hard,” says Radheshy­am Adhikari, a member of the fed­eral upper house representing the Nepali Congress. Governments were constantly made and unmade as smaller parties frequently switched sides.

One good thing is that after the new law came into effect extrem­ist voices like those of anti-federal Rastriya Janamorcha and pro-mon­archy RPP have been weakened. But many marginalized communities may argue their voices are no longer heard in the new majoritarian set-up. Perhaps there is a case for slightly lowering the 3 percent threshold, say to 2 or 2.5 percent. It will be dangerous to let two or three polit­ical parties monopolize the hold on power and set the nation’s agenda and direction.  

 Life on the fringes

 Although the presence of a large number of small parties can contribute to political instability, it also ensures a steady supply of diverse ideas and provides voters with more political choices 

 Although only two parties, the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) and the Nepali Congress (NC), currently dominate national pol­itics, there is a recent history of fringe parties wielding considerable political influence. Only five parties—the CPN-UML, the NC, the Maoist Center, the Ras­triya Janata Party, Nepal (RJPN), and the Federal Socialist Forum, Nepal (FSFN)—could secure the ‘national’ status based on the seats they won in the 2017 elections. (The number of national parties is now four, fol­lowing the merger last year between the UML and the Maoist Center to give birth to the NCP.) Lawmakers from other parties are represented in the parliament as independent candidates. In the upper house called the National Assembly (NA), only the four national parties are represented.

In the first Constituent Assembly (CA) election in 2008, 74 political parties were registered with the Election Commission (EC). Only 54 of them participated in the polls, and nine parties and one indepen­dent member won seats under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) cat­egory. But altogether 25 political parties were represented under the proportional representation (PR) category.

The number of political parties taking part in the second CA elec­tion in 2013 increased significantly. But of the 122 political parties that fielded candidates under the FPTP category, only 11 won seats. How­ever, of the 122 political parties, as many as 30 were elected to the CA under the proportional represen­tation (PR) category. After the first and second CA elections, it was hard for the Parliament Secretariat to arrange for parliamentary party offices due to the high numbers of elected political parties.

In the first and second CA elec­tions, several fringe parties were formed on ethnic lines, but they failed to impress the voters in the last elections. “Earlier, the presence of so many parties in the parlia­ment made decision-making harder because of protracted bargain­ing and renegotiation,” says Rad­heshyam Adhikari, an NA member representing the Congress.

In the 2017 federal election, nine political parties and one indepen­dent lawmaker won seats under the FPTP category, but only five parties were elected under the PR category. Naya Shakti Nepal Party, Nepal Majdoor Kishan Party, Ras­triya Janamorcha and Rastriya Pra­jatantra Party each won one seat under the FPTP category but failed to get the new 3 percent of the total vote threshold required to secure national status.

The big squeeze

The number of political parties plummeted after a 2017 law had made it mandatory for parties to get both three percent of the total votes under the PR category as well as at least one seat under the FPTP cate­gory to be recognized as a national party. After the imposition of the 3 percent threshold, some small par­ties merged into bigger ones.

According to the latest EC data, altogether 113 political parties are registered as per constitutional pro­visions. But not all of them contest elections. In 2017, 95 political par­ties had submitted an application to the EC for participation in the fed­eral and provincial elections. The EC listed 91 of them as eligible and gave them election symbols. But only 55 political parties fielded candidates under the FPTP category. As many as 88 political parties had submit­ted an application to the EC for the PR category, but only 49 ended up sending their lists of candidates.

The absence of smaller parties in the parliament and in national pol­itics has both pros and cons. Over the last three decades, fringe parties were one of the reasons behind government instability. Big parties sought their support, either to form or topple the government. General Secretary of CPN (ML) CP Mainali says big parties as well as the media and civil society blamed fringe par­ties for the country’s political insta­bility, which created an opinion in favor of limiting the number of political parties by imposing a cer­tain threshold.

“But fringe parties have a big role in ensuring an inclusive political system,” Mainali told APEX. “Small parties like ours have a vastly differ­ent political ideology than the big parties,” he added.

In the past, instead of sticking to a permanent alliance, many fringe parties displayed a tendency to sup­port any party or leader if it served their immediate purpose. There are several instances of fringe parties playing a decisive role in the for­mation or toppling of governments. So electoral laws were amended to discourage smaller parties. “Now we have realized our mistake and are working tirelessly to repair our image and revive the party. We face many issues as the current govern­ment with a two-thirds majority has failed to deliver,” says Mainali.

Diversity v chaos

There indeed are concerns that restrictions on political parties adversely affect diversity and plu­ralism. In a democracy, political parties play a vital role in making the government accountable and transparent. In several cases, major political parties have a rigid ideo­logical viewpoint and dread experi­menting. It is smaller parties, whose chances of winning elections and ascending to power are slim, that can take the risk of introducing new and out-of-the box ideas. “In a plu­ral society like Nepal’s, fringe par­ties could play a vital role in giving voice to diverse ideas and opinions,” argues Puranjan Acharya, a political analyst.

But Adhikari, who had a hand in introducing the 3 percent thresh­old, does not subscribe to this view. “In other countries, fringe parties have a firm ideological position, with which they try to secure voter support. The situation is different in Nepal, where fringe parties fre­quently trade ideology for political gain,” he says. He cites the example of the Rastriya Prajantra Party led by Kamal Thapa, which he thinks has pursued power at the expense of a steady focus on its Hindu agenda.

Yet there is no denying that the voices of only a few parties are dom­inant in the parliament. In the first and second CA, Chitra Bahadur KC of the Rastriya Janamorcha vehe­mently opposed the idea of federal­ism and his presence was striking. But now that his party is no longer represented in the parliament, his ideas are rarely heard in the media and in public spaces, although he remains steadfast in his belief that a federal system is unsuited to Nepal.

“There have been systematic attempts by the big parties to min­imize the role of smaller parties in the parliament. With a party status in the parliament, it would have been easier to convey our mes­sage to the people,” KC told APEX. “Smaller parties play a vital role in ensuring political inclusion, but there have been attempts to impose a two-party system in the country. However, we will continue to con­vince people that federalism is not suitable for Nepal,” he said.

Many political commentators say smaller parties are even more important in the federal step-up. Although they are unlikely to win seats in the federal parliament, they can win elections at the provincial and local levels, where they can highlight grassroots issues neglected by the big national parties.

The existence of small parties also gives voters more political choices. In the last elections, for example, many urban residents voted for the Bibeksheel Sajha Party, which inspired voters with its agenda of ‘alternative politics’. Although it didn’t win a single seat in the federal parliament, it secured two in the Province 3 legislature.

Ahead of the third edition of the joint Nepal-China military drills in Nepal planned for August-September, Nepal Army Chief Purna Chandra Thapa is leaving on a week-long China visit starting June 16. Thapa is going at the invitation of China’s People’s Liberation Army, in what will be his first China trip as the CoAS. During the visit, there is likely to be new impetus on implementation of past agreements on military cooperation between the two armies, with a focus on humanitarian efforts and disaster relief, said an NA source. Shambhu Kattel