Unless voters are shown what a real ballot paper looks like, they could be disoriented in the booth
With the local level elections taking place on Friday, it leaves the contestants just a few more days for campaigning. Hence, they are reaching out to as many voters as possible and educating them about how to vote. With about 45,000 candidates from 79 registered parties as well as independents vying for 35,221 positions in the polls, the ballot paper can be very confusing for even those voters who have cast their vote time and again. In the local level election, people will be electing the municipal mayor and deputy mayor, chair and vice chair of rural municipalities as well as ward chairperson and four other ward members, who must include a woman and a dalit candidate. What makes this year's local level elections all the more confusing for the electorate is that it is supposed to be a keen contest between two alliances – the five-party ruling coalition of the Nepali Congress, CPN Maoist Centre (CPN-MC), CPN-Unified Socialist (CPN-US), Jananta Samajbadi Party-Nepal and Jana Morcha, and the alliance of the UML and Kamal Thapa-led Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal.
In a bid to keep the ruling coalition intact, the senior leaders at the centre had nominated the candidates for various positions. So unlike in the past, candidates vying for different positions for a single ward, for instance, could be representing a host of election symbols.
One must bear in mind that Nepal has a huge illiterate population, for whom a large ballot with a lot of symbols could be intimidating. Add to it, the 3.5 million eligible youths who will be voting for the first time on Friday.
So unless the voters are shown what a real ballot paper looks like and taught how to put the mark on a symbol, the electorate could be disoriented.
There is not much time to educate the voters, and it is unlikely that voters will mark the right symbols as desired by the five-party ruling coalition.
Should the voters mark the ballot paper randomly, it could benefit some other candidate than the one intended.
Hence, a lot of votes could go to waste, or worse still, they could become invalid.
It's too early to predict the outcome of the local elections. But the alliance of the ruling coalition partners, representing five different election symbols, might not have been a very wise decision. The confusion that this has created in the electorate could actually benefit their main rival, the UML, which has fielded candidates in most places, including in Kathmandu, without having to share any of the seats. This should serve as a lesson for the parties in power - whether to contest on their own or share seats - during the provincial and federal elections later this year. The Election Commission (EC) also has the onus to educate the voters in future elections so that votes don't go to waste or become invalid. We've seen in past polls how a handful of votes have made a difference between a victory and a loss. The EC must also see to it that the elections are free and fair, and both candidates and parties follow the poll code in both letter and spirit. Warnings are not enough, strict action must be taken against those trying to woo voters with booze and meat on the eve of the election or using others' party flags and election symbols.
Weather forecast
The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DoHM) has predicted more than average rainfall in the upcoming monsoon, which usually starts from June 10 and lasts till September-end. The department has released a long-range forecast by putting together its observations made on the basis of the study by the World Meteorological Organisation and on its own observation. As per the prediction, Province-1, Madhes and Bagmati provinces are likely to receive normal rainfall, while the rest of the country, west from Bagmati province, is likely to receive above-normal rainfall.
This long-range weather forecast should serve as a warning to the concerned government agencies to fully prepare themselves in dealing with monsoon-related disasters like floods and landslides. The government needs to focus its preparedness on the western parts of the country, where above-normal rainfall is likely to occur during this season. Last year, more than above rainfall was received in the central part of the country, destroying many infrastructure projects, including the headworks of the Melamchi drinking water project. Many lives and property can be saved if the government takes precautionary measures and informs the people about the weather in advance.
A version of this article appears in the print on May 09, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
