The Election Commission (EC) issued a 78-page election code of conduct on March 17 for the local level polls scheduled for May 13, requiring the elected officials to resign from their posts before filling their nomination papers if they wish to contest the upcoming polls. The EC has set April 24 and 25 as the dates for filling the nomination papers for the rural and urban municipalities, respectively. It means all the 753 local levels will remain in a vacuum at least for 19 days. This decision has drawn flak from the Municipal Association of Nepal and National Association of Rural Municipalities, political parties and legal experts. As per the constitutional provisions and the Local Level Election Act-2017, the local levels cannot remain in a vacuum even for a single day. The local level is one of the three tiers of government, and it functions just like the federal or provincial governments, which cannot remain in a vacuum without the executive and ministers even for a single day. Although the EC officials have said this provision was incorporated in the code to ensure a level playing field to all, many have termed it 'unjust', saying it had undermined the day-to-day functioning of the local levels.

An absence of a local level official even for a single day will immensely hamper the services that they are supposed to provide to the people. There are certain powers and responsibilities to be exercised by the local elected officials that cannot be carried out by the government employees, such as making recommendations for citizenship and passport as well as writing letters of certification and authentication for various purposes.

These are the jobs of the local levels other government entities cannot do as per the schedules mentioned in the constitution. If a mayor or deputy-mayor of a municipality or a chief or deputy-chief of a rural municipality resigns to contest the upcoming poll, who will issue the recommendation letters to the service seekers? The EC failed to foresee the situation of a vacuum at local levels while incorporating this provision in the code of conduct.

The EC's main argument behind requiring the incumbent officials to tender their resignation before filling the nomination papers is that they could misuse their power and authority during the election period, such as misuse of vehicles, use of government resources and even announcement of new development projects to influence the voters. Can the EC issue a similar code of conduct for the federal and provincial governments during the federal and provincial elections, which should be held within the next seven months? The EC has the right to take legal action against anyone if s/he is found guilty of violating the code of conduct that will come into force from the date of filling the nominations. There are other state agencies like the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) which can take punitive action against anyone misusing power during the election. While it is good to introduce measures to make an election free, fair and impartial and also provide a level playing field to all through the code, they should be in consistent with the related laws and constitutional provisions. In this respect, the EC should have consulted the stakeholders before it issued the controversial election code of conduct.

Govt's priority

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has rightly stressed the need of building reservoir-based hydropower projects to ensure energy security in the country. He spoke of his government's priority while inaugurating the newly built 220/132 kv sub-station in Manthali Municipality on Saturday, which takes in power from the 456-MW Upper Tamakoshi completed in July last year. It's common knowledge that the country's energy output from hydropower is about halved during the dry season. It is thus imperative that we build reservoir-based projects so that there is no fluctuation in power generation round the year.

Whatever has happened to the construction of the 1,200-MW Budhigandaki hydropower plant, for which taxes were even levied on the sale of petroleum products to raise money. The construction of the Budhigandaki and the 750-MW West Seti must be expedited at the earliest if the country's energy demands are to be met by the end of this decade and beyond. As envisaged by the government, large reservoir-based projects would also cut down on our heavy dependence on imported oil, whose price is influenced by unforeseen global events, such as the current war in Ukraine.

A version of this article appears in the print on March 21, 2022, of The Himalayan Times