This has reference to the article “Local polls at last” (THT, May 15, Page 8). In a democracy, people have voting rights to choose their representatives who can govern for a certain period of time. In elections there are losers and winners.

Personality matters when it comes to electing a candidate, no matter which party s/he represents. Local level elections were held peacefully in province number 3, 4 and 6 though some tragic incidents of violence occurred with a couple of people killed which should not have happened.

We still need to learn a lot to minimise human casualties. It is encouraging that over 70 percent voters cast their votes to elect their representatives. To the best of my knowledge, most people were seen casting votes early in the morning as the weathermen had forecast foul weather in the evening.

As initial counting of votes indicate that people have preferred to choose candidates from the major political parties and the new ones have done little in this election. The candidates of the newly formed parties have yet to be tested among the electorates.

They will have to wait for a couple of other elections before they prove to be the champions for right causes of the people.

There has been a strong indication that the people are more concerned about their local level development and electing those parties and candidates who have performed better in the past elections which were held about 20 years ago.

Saroj Wagle, Bara

Security

An unidentified group detonated a powerful pressure cooker bomb at Zonal Transport Management Office of Lahan Municipality in Siraha on May 11, three days before the local level election in other provinces.

The explosive device was planted in the rest room on the first floor adjoining the management office and exploded with a loud noise at around noon.

Although there was no human casualties, walls, window panes and furniture inside the office were broken or damaged due to impact of the explosion. The explosion must be read as a warning in advance that June 14 election in province number 2 and other provinces will not be peaceful as the Madhesi parties are still demanding that the constitution be amended before the second phase of election scheduled for June 14.

Learning lessons from the first phase of local election the EC and the government must beef up the security situation in the most sensitive areas and identify the groups that create terror among people. Security must be tightened on the open border and suspects and armed groups who are

opposed to the election must be rounded up before they cause any harm to the people, candidates and physical property. They cannot completely derail the entire election process. But they can create panic if strict measures are taken by the government.

Analysis of intelligence gathered from across the country will be a great help to curb such activities aimed at disturbing the election being held after a gap of 20 years.

Pratik Shrestha, Buddhanagar