Latest is a series about the political situation in Nepal, the Himalayan country between India and China
See my past blogs here on DailyKos. After a tenyear civil war, Nepal ended the monarchy but instead of adopting democracy entered a seven year period of paralysis until the 2015 earthquakes. The transitional Constituent Assembly passed a constitution in September 2015, over the objection of diverse elements of Nepali society. There was and is, a distinct adversarialism between the “hill-people” of Nepal — those of Brahmin or Chettri caste who seemed to always dominate the government — and the Nepali people of Terai, the region bordering India. Kathmandu (the capital) gets it’s petrol from India, and shortly after the new constitution, widespread protests in Terai led to the “petrol blockade” which lasted three months. The blockade may or may not have been abetted by India. Nobody who knows the truth will say it out loud.
The new constitution adopts a federal system and elections at the local level were declared to take place in 2017, for the first time in twenty years. In the run-up, provincial and local units needed to be delineated. Festering issues from the hastily-adopted constitution needed to be addressed. Political parties needed to buy in to the plan.
Today’s announcement
KATHMANDU, April 23: The government has decided to hold the local level election on two phases.
The meeting of the Council of Ministers held on Sunday has decided to hold the local level election on May 14 and June 14.
As per the decision, the first phase of election, scheduled for May 14, will be conducted on Province number 3, 4 and 6. Likewise, the second phase of the election will be held on June 14 in Province number 1, 2, 5 and 7.
The decision was made keeping in view making the Madheshi Front to participate in the local level election as per the agreement between the ruling alliance and the Front on Saturday.
Likewise, the government has decided to endorse the revise the constitution amendment bill through the process. “The cabinet has decided to endorse the revised constitution amendment bill through the process”, said Minister Nayak to Republica online. www.myrepublica.com/...
Typical of Nepali politics, everything went past the deadline. There has been daily news of consolidation of existing political parties in Terai and jockeying to garner more widespread support.
Here is the latest map. Nepal is shaped like a hot dog and now we have mustard on it! Instead of conducting the entire palette of local elections May 14th, it will now be held in two stages. The hilly regions will go ahead on the original date and the Terai will vote a month later, June 14th. It should be noted that the provinces are so new that they have not been named. The seven provinces replace the prior system of about twenty “zones.”
Nepal is a “constitutional democracy” but elections have been infrequent. This provides a wild card. Relative to population, the Terai is under-represented in the Parliament. The “districts” as shown are ones whose boundaries were defined many years ago; it’s the provinces that are new.
Republica, a leading Nepali newspaper, published a nifty interactive map that shows the voter density district-by-district.
the district locations.
When reporting on news from outside Kathmandu it’s not unusual to see that the newspaper will include a small map showing the district from which the events took place so as to remind the reader of the geography.
The ballots
Each political party is represented on the ballot by a symbol, such as a tree, a cow, the rising sun, a pen, or the hammer-and-sickle.
About Terai
On my other blog, I collected a set of links to describe this region of Nepal in greater detail. The vast majority of western tourists visit Kathmandu or the the trekking routes of the hill country, and many of my Nepali friends tell me I have spent more time in Terai than they have. (read about my memorable two weeks in Janakpur here).
Summer 2017
My own plans for summer are to return to Nepal to teach again. I first travelled there in 2007, since 2011 I focus specifically on teaching critical care skills to nurses and doctors. For this summer I will be in Terai most of the time (again), more likely in western as opposed to eastern.
GoFundMe
I am still seeking donations to a GoFundMe page I iset up — feel free to take a look at it. You can read a description of my goals and budget at www.joeniemczura.wordpress.com