Opinion
Illusive local governance
Government has made local elections its top priority, but no preparations are to be seenKhagendra N. Sharma
King Mahendra believed that the foundation of democracy should be strengthened from the grassroots. Hence he had created a three-tier pyramidial partyless political structure called the Panchayat with the village/town panchayat at the base, the district panchayat at the middle and the national panchayat (NP) at the top. While the NP worked as the national legislature, the lower levels were the vehicle of local governance (LG). Their respective statutes gave them specific power to raise revenue and carry out various development and administrative works. The panchayats elected representatives for which periodic elections were held. Although the original statutes had given specific powers to the LG units, they were later further strengthened by a statute called the Decentralization Act, hailed as a good local governance model in the Asia Pacific Region.
With the restoration of the multi-party parliamentary democracy in 1990, the entire Panchayat structures were dismantled including the LG units. However, LG units were later recreated as Development Committees, e.g. Village, Town and District Development Committees. The first election for the LG units was held in 1994. The former decentralisation program was also revived with slight variation. The second election for the LG units was held five years later, but the third election was put off because of three reasons. First, the then Nepali Congress (NC) government felt that the CPN-UML had manipulated the second election to grab majority in the LG units.
Second, the Maoist insurgency had created a deep sense of insecurity. Although the then Home Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka had pleaded that he would be able to provide security, PM Deuba was not convinced and postponed the election.
Third, king Gyanendra wanted to do away with democracy. The Lower House of Parliament was dismissed a bit earlier. The postponement of the LG election would leave the country without people’s representatives except the two thirds of the members of the Upper House of Parliament. With no election for the replacement of the retired MPs, the country would be free of elected representatives for the next four years.
That would give Gyanendra an exclusive opportunity to spread his fangs without any institutional obstacle. So, when Deuba presented the proposal to postpone the local election, he agreed with visible satisfaction. Had Deuba had the vision and the guts to conduct the election, democracy would not have died at the grassroots the way it did.
Current predicament
The second people’s movement resulted in a number of uncalculated repercussions. The first was the unexpected revival of the Lower House of Parliament. The second was the politicisation of the Maoists who were regarded as terrorists during the decade-long insurgency. The third was the dismissal of royalty with a history of two-and-a-half centuries. With this the concept of the Hindu State was buried as well. The country is now a republic. The fourth was the call for a Constituent Assembly to create a people’s constitution. The fifth was the creation of a federal structure, which is not yet done even with the promulgation of the new constitution. The sixth was the growth of a culture of impunity among the political forces that actively defied the rule of law.
The unfortunate victim in all this was democracy which can only survive in the observance of the rule of law.
However, the most transparent result of the whole transition is the untimely assassination of the LG hierarchy, for which all the political actors are responsible. The irony of the situation is that all the political forces pay lip service to the revival of LG and some parties in power and some leaders have even set a deadline for the election for the LG bodies. But, nothing has been done to revive them.
The local bodies have very important functions. But the country is running without elected LG bodies for over one decade. So, there is substitution of two elements: The government employees who are neither locally selected nor accountable to the local people; the nomination of local representatives by different political parties that remain accountable only to their respective parties. This system is responsible for the unchecked corruption in the local development works. The worst form of corruption is the proportional division of the given budget among the parties for which they are not held accountable. The formation of LG bodies though proper election will make it accountable to the local people.
Future prospects
Is it possible to revive the LG process by conducting local level election? Sushil Koirala had declared on the eve of his election as the coalition PM that he would conduct the election for local bodies within six months. But that did not happen. The present government has also put local elections as a top priority. But no preparatory action seems to have been taken. Why is the government not serious in forming local bodies? There might be some hurdles in conducting the election; they can be identified, analysed and solved. Let us examine some key hurdles.
The most important hurdle is updating the regulations. The earlier LG bodies were formed under the 1992 constitution. That constitution is replaced by not one but two subsequent constitutions—the Interim Constitution and the present Constitution of Nepal. Naturally, changes are there, but due action should be taken to update and accommodate the changes.
The second hurdle is the restructuring of the state. This is a serious obstacle because the number of federal units has not yet been decided. Furthermore, the boundaries of the newly formed states complicate the solution. It is not clear what structure of the LG will be adopted in the federal structure: Will it be two tiers or three tiers? If some of the present LG bodies get split between two or more states, how will they be adjusted in the federal structure?
The third hurdle is the changes currently made in the composition of the LG bodies. A large number of VDCs simply disappear because they have been merged in the newly created municipalities. A good deal of baseline action is needed to make the adjustments and prepare a renewed mapping with complete voter lists and specific allocation of municipal wards. These are logistical requisites that must be completed for conducting a fair election.
The fourth, but not the least troubling, hurdle is the Madhes agitation. Fair elections require peace in the environment. So, there must be truce in the Madhes before conducting the election for the LG bodies. Will the government care to listen?
Sharma is a political analyst and can be contacted at [email protected]