Nepal set to vote in national, provincial polls Sunday

By Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI (AA) - Nepal is set to choose representatives for national and provincial assemblies to form a new government on Sunday.

The elections in the Himalayan nation which have remained politically unstable in the recent past will be held to elect 275 members to the House of Representatives and 550 members to Nepal’s seven provincial assemblies.

The country, which had 10 different governments since the abolition of a 239-year-old monarchy in 2008, will head to the polls where 18 million people will cast their votes.

Nepal's Election Commission said 2,412 candidates are competing for 165 of the 275 seats in the House under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system, in which the candidate who wins the most votes in each constituency is elected.

The remaining members will be elected through proportional representation. They will be declared elected in proportion to the number of votes they receive.

In provincial elections, more than 3,220 candidates are vying for 330 provincial assembly seats under the FPTP system, while 220 will be elected through proportional representation.

Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world and the majority of its people, 80% are Hindu. Buddhists, Muslims, and Christians form a small part of the population.

A major issue in the election is the economy in Nepal which has slowed, triggering higher inflation.

- Main contestants

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, 76, who heads the Nepali Congress party (NC), is seeking a return to power and has allied with the Maoist Centre party, the main group of former Maoist rebels. The alliance is in direct competition with another alliance led by the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) -- the main opposition party led by former Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli.

Both alliances have promised to create a large number if voted to power.

Santosh Sharma Poudel, the co-founder of Nepal Institute for Policy -- a think tank focusing on economic and foreign issues, told Anadolu Agency that this election is more exciting than in the past.

"People (especially in urban areas) are yearning for change, after being disillusioned with the old guard," he wrote in an email, adding that local elections earlier this year showed that passionate, independent and young candidates can get elected.

He said in the upcoming elections, too, no leaders, "even former prime ministers who have been the mainstay of politics for decades, cannot take their win for granted, and the challenge comes not from rival-political parties but new independent candidates."

Poudel believes the NC will emerge as the leading party.

"In 2017, in terms of vote percentage, the party was marginally behind the main opposition (CPN-UML), losing many seats narrowly. Now that NC and the CPN (Maoist Centre) have an alliance. I expect them to be largest, followed by CPN-UML and CPN," he said.

Many are yearning for change in leadership, said Poudel.

"In the last federal elections in 2017, many people voted for the left alliance in hope of stability (assuming stability will help deliver better development). But it did not deliver," he said. "The next coalition government of NC and CPN (Maoist Centre) has nothing to write home in terms of delivery as well. The ruling coalition has campaigned on protecting democracy from opposition leader Oli. Oli has presented himself as a nationalist leader.”

"For the people," Poudel said, "issues seem to be the same this election."

-Economy is issue

"Development of infrastructure and better economy. The priority has not changed much since the 1990s, which is an indication of the stagnancy, especially in the economic realm," he said, adding that "foreign policy (for the people) has also been a priority because of the increasing presence of China, India and the United States."

Dr. Ram Krishna Tiwari, head of the central department of political science at Nepal's Tribhuvan University, told Anadolu Agency as political parties have reached the final stage of campaigning, the priorities of the new government would be to "increase industrial development and employment, develop the country's water resources, access to transportation and develop and expand the tourism sector, and develop the economic development to become self-sufficient and revitalize the relationship between the two giant neighboring countries."

He said the government is likely to be formed by a "multiparty coalition."

"It seems that this election will be a matter of victory and defeat mainly because of the dispute between those who protect the current constitution and system and those who actively resist it," Tiwari said via email.