For too long in Nepal, local-level needs have been set aside, first in order to cope with the insurgency during the 1990s and then to implement the transitional political process that followed the comprehensive peace accord during the late 2000s.
During the decade-long transitional period ending in September 2015, Nepal’s interim constitution sought to ensure that all political parties had a say in governing the country while a final political settlement was being negotiated around a new constitution.
However, the cacophony of interest groups represented by the multitude of political parties caused political instability and policy volatility in government. Sub-national governance was grossly neglected as a consequence. Disasters like the earthquakes of 2015 have laid bare the tattered remains of government at the local level, where centrally orchestrated relief and recovery mechanisms have heaved and strained for two years to help survivors. Local elections come at a time when the gap between state and society is critically wide.
Read Also
Nationally local, Editorial
Trial and error democracy, Om Astha Rai
Resuscitating democracy, Guest Editorial
Over the past two decades, this distance from Kathmandu has been exacerbated by the alienation of Nepalis from government because of a dysfunctional process of consensus politics that has percolated from national to local levels. From the dividing up among local party elites of block grants meant for local development and the party-based appointments of public servants at all levels, to the level of impunity in policy decisions and criminal neglect of those who suffer, the perverse results of this political process manifest every day in stupefying actions that serve the narrow interests of a tyrannical minority of those who have usurped representation of the Nepali public.
While this minority’s credibility is in shambles, their legitimacy will be tested in the next few days and months when Nepalis vote in local elections, which are expected to pave the way for constitutionally mandated provincial and national elections later this year.
Of these three elections, the local elections are perhaps the most salient, not least because of constitutional provisions that require a significant component of unconditional financial support for the newly elected local governments. Although put off for 15 years (local elections should have been held every five years in Nepal), there is a promise in these elections that surpasses the exercise of electoral choice by millions of Nepalis.
To be able to choose from among their own communities a fresh cohort of representatives who are empowered through jurisdiction and funds to serve their own local needs is certainly part of that promise. However, the exercise of choice through elections alone is insufficient for productive democratic politics and democratic citizenship.