It is strange that even 16 months after the formation of the most powerful people’s government in Nepali history, the local elective bodies — the VDCs, the municipalities, and the DDCs — throughout the country do not have political leadership.

For the past five years, employees have been running the local units, as neither the elections were held, nor political appointees were sent out to govern the units. This state of the local bodies also worried several donors, such as Switzerland and Denmark, which provide substantial aid for local development. At present, efforts continue to find political representatives, but the lack of agreement between CPN-UML and the other alliance partners has been delaying the process.

The first attempt did not work, because the CPN-UML objected to the Maoist minister’s proposal, backed by the other parties, which sought to distribute the posts in the local units based on a formula adopted for forming the Interim Legislature-Parliament (ILP). The UML contention was that local power should be shared on the basis of the relative strength of the parties that emerged after the local elections of ten years ago in which the UML had captured 60 per cent of the seats. The UML favoured giving the Maoists the seats vacated by death or by those who had switched over to regression. It also argued that the results of the last elections had formed the basis for the formation of ILP. Not entirely so. The formula for ILP formation was based partly on the numerical position of the parties in the last elected parliament as well as on a consideration of the present Maoist strength. Fault can easily be found with that formula. But it is too late for that exercise.

A 60 per cent claim on local power is simply an outrageous demand, because national politics has undergone a profound transformation, and the old balance of political power has changed much. The main task now is to provide the local units with political leadership ahead of the Assembly polls, because it would help build confidence in the people of order returning to the villages and create a congenial atmosphere for the elections. The VDC secretaries had recently agitated. However, in a recent agreement with them, the government had promised to make alternative arrangements. But the deadline passed more than three weeks ago. As disclosed by Dev Gurung, minister for local development and a Maoist central leader, his ministry has put forward a second proposal for “one-party one-representative all-party committees of inclusive character for local units, with the chairmanship rotating among the parties”. The UML is likely to find that this proposal would not do justice to it, either. To be fair to the UML, some weightage ought to be attached to its past strength in the local units; it cannot be asked to play second fiddle to any other party in local power-sharing. That said, however, the major political parties should also demonstrate a greater sense of mutual accommodation.