NEPALI POLITICS

The Himalayan Times 24 March 2023 Irresponsible leaders Following the provincial and federal elections held last November, senior leaders of the major political parties and the other fringe parties have been showing their true political colours by playing musical chairs to form a comfortable government and grab the opportunity for the ministerial berths undermining the national issues and people’s hardships. Politicians are elected public officials who should be sincerely putting their effort to follow the democratic norms and values in true sense and need to be accountable to their voters. During an election, politicians put forward all their commitments and promises in their election manifestos and speeches to lure voters towards them. However, their commitments and promises are hardly fulfilled as expected by the people. Now, the people have started realizing that most of these promises are not fulfilled and have started showing concerns about their political representati

The Himalayan Times 17 March 2023 The Constituent Assembly declared Nepal as a federal democratic republic after unconstitutionally dethroning the 240-year-old monarchy in May 2008. A new constitution was promulgated in 2015. Since then, Nepal has seen three presidents, including the recently elected NC senior leader Ram Chandra Poudel “Ramchandra Paudel sworn in as third president”(March 14, Page 1). Poudel, who was a common candidate of eight-party alliance that included NC and the CPN (Maoist Center), was elected to the post of the country’s head of the state by securing a total of 33802 votes. The President is elected by an electoral college composed of the members of the federal parliament and the provincial assemblies.  The president is required to play largely a ceremonial role as per the constitution, however, s/he can play a crucial role if there a political crises arises. Analysts say the biggest challenge for the new President is to maintain an impartial constitu

The Himalayan Times 10 March 2023   Take responsibility for the 5,000 deaths In the last November provincial and federal level elections, no single party was able to secure majority seats in the House of Representatives (HoR). This situation has compelled the major political parties to seek support of one another including the fringe parties to form the coalition government. As a result, the Nepal Congress (NC), even being the largest party, was not able to form the government and had to seek other party’s support to do so. Dahal deserted pre-election alliance led by Deuba at the eleventh hour to ensure his PM chair and joined hands with Oli leaving behind Deuba at odd hour. However, the post-election coalition government could not even survive more than two months because of Dahal’s unstable and unreliable political acts.   Dahal’s PM position seems to be at risk after the people’s war victims registered a case against him at the Supreme Court (SC), accusing him of killing

  The Himalayan Times 3 March 2023 Self-centered politics The on-going political tussles among the senior leaders of major political parties following the 2079 federal elections in the name of saving constitution and Loktantra is nothing but a shameless, immoral, insensible and self-centered political game that is pushing the nation towards political uncertainty. This scary political situation might invite social unrest, political chaos and economic hardship in the country further damaging its blurred image in the international arena. Prime Minister Dahal’s political merry-go-round to save his chair continues after dumping the two-months-old seven-party alliance, blaming Oli for not agreeing with his proposal to elect the next president on consensual basis. The seven-party alliance formed last December, after the collapse of the NC-led five-party alliance during the prime ministerial election, could not even enjoy its honeymoon period owing to Dahal’s abrupt decision to join han