2022

The 2022 election year began with the Deuba-led coalition government ratifying the much-delayed $500 million MCC grant for transmission lines to distribute and export power across Nepal despite fierce opposition from the Maoist Centre and the Unified Socialists. 

The row threatened the Deuba-Dahal-Nepal alliance. Dahal and Nepal ultimately agreed to support its ratification on condition that it be accompanied by an ‘interpretative declaration’ addressing concerns about the project, the viability of which was questioned by experts: 

‘..even as the declaration seems to have kept the governing coalition intact and ratified the MCC, experts have questioned the validity of such a document. Others have called the document redundant, and that it is merely a face-saving exercise for the Maoists and Unified Socialist leadership.’

Then the three main parties began wheeling  and dealing to make and break alliances in preparation of the upcoming local and federal elections. In May, as Nepal’s established parties battled it out in local elections, independent candidates won the mayor races in major cities like rapper-turned-politician Balen Shah in Kathmandu. 

A collective of young professionals came together to form the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) under the leadership of former tv personality Rabi Lamichhane, who contested the November 2022 election on a platform of anti-establishment and anti-corruption.

The NC led in the polls with the UML second, the Maoists came a distant third, while Madhav Kumar Nepal’s Unified Socialists was unable to scrape together enough votes to be recognised as a national party. The RSP emerged as the fourth largest party in Parliament with 21 MPs, and Lamichhane would go on to become Home Minister.

Numerous independents also bagged direct seats. We reported as the votes were being counted: 

‘Although these numbers may look like the big parties are still in control, the electorate has sent a clear message by elevating the independent RSP as a national party in Parliament with more than 1 million votes. With its 7 change-minded MPs, the RSP will have clout in the federal Parliament — a remarkable feat considering the party was only formed six months ago.’

The RSP’s success was a reflection of the expectations of Nepali voters in young technocrats to change the nature of politics and governance of the country.

Three years after the 2022 election, Lamichhane is in custody for his involvement in a  cooperatives scam , and the technocratic party seems to be bogged down in the same swamp it vowed to clean up.

Meanwhile, the same could not be said about the inclusion of women and minority communities in governance. Top leadership once again denied female leaders tickets to contest direct elections, preferring to fulfil the 33% Constitutional quota by nominating women through the PR list.

After the results came in, the pre-election Deuba-Dahal alliance fell apart, and Dahal formed a coalition government with UML and RSP as his biggest partners — even though the NC had emerged as the largest party in Parliament. But that was before Oli pulled the rug from under the coalition barely a year later.