The withdrawal by some 600 people of their candidature leaves 3,028 candidates in the field for the February 8 civic polls. For the first time in Nepali history the seats available (4,146) have outnumbered the contestants. In 22 municipalities out of the 58, the acute shortage of candidates has already washed out the polls. Even to get this number, the government and the Election Commission have had to adopt not-so-straight methods, such as relaxing certain requirements and announcing the never heard-of insurance for the candidates. The vast number of the candidates includes those little or never known to the voters and others who make amusing reading.

Nine days ahead, while the candidates should have been mounting high-voltage campaigns to seek votes, most of them have gone into hiding; they may be put under government’s security protection till the elections — if these can be called elections — are over. The Maoists have threatened ‘grave consequences’ not only for the candidates but for their canvassers, besides issuing an ultimatum to all district presidents and vice presidents of the local bodies to resign. The voters will most probably come to know the names of the candidates only when they enter a polling booth, having to decide then and there who to vote for, without having even a minute to evaluate their relative merits.

The elections are being held under the royal road map, which promises ‘parliamentary elections’ by April next year. In days to come, with the expected Maoist physical action, things are likely to turn even messier. In an election in which even the candidates cannot show up in public, naturally, the voters need not feel any sense of duty to vote just to save the government’s face. The seven-party call for boycott, the even more effective Maoist threat of action, and the farce the civic polls have already become — these things will surely draw the lowest-ever voter participation in the country. Faced with the lack of domestic and international credibility and legitimcy of the polls, the wisest course for the government would be to call off the elections, swallow its pride and take a bold new initiative for a political settlement of the crisis. One thing the civic polls have made clear is how large the Maoist writ runs even in the towns. Therefore, it takes no imagination to predict what the situation would be like during the promised general election. It will not be surprising if the government stages the general election, calls a parliamentary session and legislates as it pleases and still calls

it a restoration of democracy.