Poll Points
As former US president Jimmy Carter is set to visit Nepal this week, the Carter Center in Kathmandu has asked the stakeholders to expedite poll preparations
By SANJAYA DHAKAL
In mid-April this year the Elections Commission (EC) had come out with a letter bombshell stating its inability to hold the elections by the stipulated time of mid-June. It had stated that it needs threshold of 110 days to prepare for credible polls once the date of election is announced and all necessary legislations are in place.
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Carter: Taking stock first -hand |
The EC’s announcement had taken everyone off guard. But no one was really surprised deep down because of the lackadaisical manner in which the government and the eight parties were proceeding with the promulgation of electoral legislations. Moreover, the situation of law and order had worsened.
Two months later, the situation is not really different. Although the parties have agreed to hold the CA polls within the month of Mangsir (mid-Nov to mid-Dec), the legislations are yet to be promulgated and the situation of law and order is yet to be improved.
As such, the Carter Center – which has been invited by the government and the eight parties including the Maoists – to make independent observation of elections in the country, has come out with a statement appealing to all stakeholders to expedite poll preparation in order to avoid the repetition of date debacle.
On Friday (June 8), the Carter Center’s International Election Observation Mission team informed that former US president Jimmy Carter is scheduled to visit Nepal from June 13 to 16.
He will meet with Prime Minister, political leaders including Maoist chairman Prachanda and other officials during his brief visit aimed at taking stock of polls preparations.
The Center has called for sustained focus on electoral preparations. “The Carter Center is encouraged by the recent Eight Party agreement regarding a late November/early December timeframe for the constituent assembly election as well as the resumption of business in the interim legislature-parliament. Furthermore, the June 7 registration of a second bill to amend the interim constitution and discussions in the state affairs commission on the constituent assembly electoral system indicate that the political deadlock of the past several months is potentially coming to an end.”
The Center has, however, reminded all that the 110 day threshold the election commission has requested will expire in early August.
Importantly, on the issue of electoral system, the Center has urged the political leadership to reconsider the issue of ranked candidate lists in the proportional representation system.
“The system presently being discussed would allow parties to give elected seats to any candidate within their proportional representation candidate list after the election result has been declared, rather than allocating the seats starting from an already ranked candidate list. The former system, if adopted, would remove the ability of voters to know who they are likely to elect from a given party and would provide political parties with disproportionate control over their candidates. As both systems will allow for quotas for marginalized groups presently being discussed to be preserved, the Center encourages the political leadership to select the process which will be most transparent for voters,” the Center states in its statement.
The Field Director of Carter Center in Kathmandu Darren Nance, at the press meet, also expressed hopes that the situation of law and order will be restored by talking to various agitators and marginalized communities.
The Carter Center’s international election observation mission in Nepal has deployed 13 long-term observers (LTOs) in March, 2007 representing nine different nationalities throughout Nepal to assess the political and electoral environment in the period leading up to the constituent assembly election. “The Center’s observers have now visited more than 70 of Nepal’s 75 districts, reaching not only to district headquarters but also to the village level,” said Nance.
As the Carter Center celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2007, its co-founder and former US president Jimmy Carter will be visiting Nepal .
As he is visiting in the capacity of the co-founder of the Center, he will also meet with the Maoist leadership – even as the US government still considers Maoists as terrorists.
A not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization, the Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide.
