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Kathmandu Thursday March 29, 2001 Chaitra 16, 2057.
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Election tribunals
Aquarrel is brewing between the government
and the Election Commission over the government’s failure to renew the tenure of
election tribunals at which election related disputes are still pending. It has been two
years since the last general elections, and a number of cases concerning electoral
malpractice are still to be resolved. The election commission has already written to the
government protesting the latter’s inaction, but to no avail. Although some of the
case load at the special tribunals has been cleared, the rest of it remains and includes
cases originating in Jhapa, Rupandehi and Rukum districts. Interestingly, the Jhapa case
involves Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola who is trying to hold on to a
parliamentary seat that he won by a slim majority. Also in Jhapa KP Sharma Oli of the
CPN-UML is engaged in a similar struggle for electoral survival. In view of the powerful
positions these two leaders enjoy in the present political establishment, one is led to
suspect that there may well be a link between that and the government’s failure to
respond to the election commission’s concerns. It is only in Dipayal that the tenure
of a tribunal hearing an electoral dispute over an Upper House seat has been extended. No
major political figure is involved in that particular case. This and the fact that the
political parties too have remained apparently unconcerned about the Election
Commission’s protests lend credence to the involvement of powerful interests.
The Election Commission is understandably
incensed. The government’s disregard has been described as a serious violation of the
principle of free and fair elections enshrined in our Constitution. Election Commission
officials consider this to be indicative of the government’s clear disregard for such
elections and for the Election Commission itself. All this amounts to a serious indictment
of those who run the government of this country. It betrays their level of commitment to
democracy. These are formative times for Nepalese democracy which our politicians never
tire of lauding to the skies in their extensive speech making. The good traditions that we
help to establish now will stand our democracy in good stead in the months and years to
come. Failure to respond adequately to complaints of electoral irregularity is certainly
not one of them. Another point to be borne in mind is that democracy in third world
countries such as ours is often seen as being perfunctory. We have yet to develop the
fabric and ambiance of democracy that will keep elected leaders to the straight and narrow
throughout their tenure of office, and even beyond. We don’t in most instances even
have mechanisms in place for the impeachment of high officials for misconduct in office.
Third world democracy is said to be limited to the holding of elections periodically.
Elected leaders tend to go back to their high handed ways of lording it over the populace
once the unavoidable hassles of being voted back into power are over and done with for
another four or five years. The onus is therefore on winning those elections by hook or
crook. All the more reason therefore to keep our electoral process above reproach and the
election tribunals functioning long enough.
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