GORKHA, JUNE 4

Federal Council Chairman of Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal Baburam Bhattarai has said his party could not win the expected seats in the recently held local level elections due to lack of honesty in the electoral alliance.

Talking to the media in Gorkha today, the former prime minister said his party's internal issue was the key reason behind poor performance in the local level election, but there was problem in the alliance as well. There was no honesty in the alliance, in the way it was formed, Bhattarai said. He, however, said electoral alliance was still needed in the country as the constitution had the provision of a mixed electoral system.

'We have been lobbying for a directly-elected executive presidential system and fully proportional electoral system. Electoral alliance is needed as no party can garner clear majority from the existing electoral system,' according to Bhattarai. Bhattarai said time had come to rethink as several issues had surfaced while forging alliance amid diverse ideologies.

'It will be sustainable if ideologically aligned forces forge alliance.

Also, it will be easier to implement the policies and programmes,' he stated. 'Alliance with conflicting forces will give temporary benefit to form the government, but it will not function well,' he argued.

A version of this article appears in the print on June 5, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.