Unhealthy criticism

 The Himalayan Times

17 March 2022

Unhealthy criticism

It is not unusual to see leaders of different political parties blaming each other to attract voters towards their side when the date for the local level elections starts approaching nearer. They leave no stone unturned to expose all the dark political activities of their rival leaders during their election campaigns. They do not care about their own moral responsibility to behave wisely and respect the election code of conduct. Rather, they start behaving as if only they are sincere, committed and nationalists, making false promises to the voters to make the nation prosperous and relieve them of their difficulties and hardships.

The government has recently announced May 13 for the local level elections in a single phase as per the recommendation of the Election Commission (EC). The major political parties have started preparing their political strategies for it. The five-party coalition partners of the Deuba-led government seem to be in a dilemma whether to field their candidacy singly or jointly. Different versions are coming from the second-rung leaders of the Nepali Congress. However, it has decided to launch a month long election drive to prepare for the upcoming local elections “Nepali Congress launches month-long door-to-door election campaign” (THT, March 14, Page 2).

Other political parties, the UML and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) under a new leadership, have started organising election campaigns in the major cities. The CPN-Maoist seems to be joining hands with like-minded political parties for the upcoming local level elections but definitely not with the UML “Dahal rules out alliance with UML” (THT, March 14, Page 1). However, we have seen senior leaders of different political parties joining hands at the eleventh hour for their personal political interests and benefits. On the other hand, fringe parties have threatened to boycott the upcoming local polls if the EC fails to address their concerns about the election symbols “Fringe parties threaten to boycott polls” (THT, March 15, Page 1). It remains to be seen how the EC will address their concerns and hold the elections without any hindrances.

Rai Biren Bangdel,

Maharajgunj