Nepal's elections another step in right direction

Elections for a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution for the country will be held by April next year, and this decision meets another demand of the ultra-leftists who are now observing a ceasefire with the government following broad understanding reached between the two sides.

The polls dates have been mentioned by Prime Minister GP Koirala in a communication to the United Nations and the development has satisfied the Maoists who were pressing for an election for a body to re-draft the nation's constitution.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

An immediate fall-out of the polls schedule was the positive response from the ultras who said they would further extend the present truce to facilitate resolution of the country's problems. Indeed, this has been another step in the right direction raising further hopes that the picturesque Himalayan country is coming out of the difficult time that has cost it heavily, both politically and economically.

Earlier, the high level much-awaited important talks between the government and Maoists had rather unexpectedly, but happily, produced tangible results. Prime Minister Koirala and Maoist supremo Prachanda achieved significant progress in their first meeting and another meeting between them is on the cards.

Recently, a new chapter was ushered into the history of Nepal when King Gyanendra had to bow to people's movement on the issue of giving up absolute power and restoration of representative government which he had scrapped in a bid to consolidate monarchy. This development was followed by a decision of the parliament to clip the powers of the King, turning the monarchy, once again, into a ceremonial one. Recently, the parliament also formalised the decisions taken earlier.

Now, close on the heels of all these democratic steps, the government and the radical leftists, who together worked against King Gyanendra under a loose alliance, despite their differences on a variety of policies, are engaged in a complex dialogue on the future of the nation. Problems centering the Maoists stalked the nation even after the glorious democratic victory against the King in the form of his capitulation to peoples demands. The Koirala-Prachanda talks provided the basis for settling Nepal's lingering woes and the coming election is likely to strengthen the basis even though many more hurdles are still to be overcome before the achievement of political stability.

The government and the Maoists, despite the narrowing down of differences on a variety of issues, still have major differences relating to certain vital subjects like the pattern of the government and the future of the monarchy. Obviously, the government wants to continue with the Westminster system of democracy while the Maoists, in principle, believe in the one-party communist system.

Secondly, and in a way more importantly for Nepal, the prime minister and some parties in the present seven-party alliance coalition favour continuation of monarchy devoid of any executive power, but the ultras oppose monarchy tooth-and-nail in any form.

They even want trial of King Gyanendra for allegedly amassing wealth in the poverty-ridden country, and for the atrocities committed during the pro-democracy movement.

The government is not as tough as the radicals on this matter although it has gone all out to strip the King of key powers, including control over the armed forces, and the automatic accession to the throne on family lines as had existed earlier. The Maoists want to turn the country into a republic with total abolition of the monarchy, but the Nepali Congress, biggest of the seven-party ruling alliance, and its leader Koirala are known to be favouring monarchy in line with Britain and Japan.

Some of its alliance partners, like the second biggest Communist Party (M-L), feel that the King has lost whatever positive image the throne had enjoyed during the pro-democracy movement, hence, this institution is no longer revered by the people. A kind of lack of unanimity exists on this issue, but no side is creating much noise over it lest the larger scheme of things is derailed.

However, some thorny issues may still create problems in further progress despite the willingness of both sides to move ahead. The radicals want dissolution of the parliament very soon, but a decision on this is still awaited, with some indication that the government may prolong the life of parliament as long as possible.

The most sensitive issue is the status of the arms that are in possession of the Maoist cadres. Here, the government wants them to disarm, but Prachanda is not ready to give up the arms so easily. After all, they were able to develop a more than 30,000-strong force in ten years and are unlikely to deposit arms without making at least some progress in the realisation of their fundamental objectives. However, the radicals favour a role by the UN in monitoring the use of arms as the ultras have vowed not to use them at all during the truce.

The crux of the whole scenario is that the two sides are showing great signs of accommodation and this has made the progress possible. Elections for the constituent assembly by April 2007 was a major demand of the radicals and the government has clearly accepted this. In the process, a potentially divisive issue has been averted and the government-Maoists ties have been further smoothened.

While things are moving on the right track, problems may crop up in the run up to the polls when acrimony and bitterness may increasingly become the order of the day as time passes. Both sides need to remain alert so as not to queer the pitch.

Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury is the Foreign Editor of BSS.