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Constituent Assembly Elections Result In A Great Surprise for Maoist Nepal

Prakash Bom - 4/17/2008

Status quo driven main political party - Nepali Congress (NC) and United Marxist Leninist (UML) leaderships and their cadres were confident in winning substantial constituent assembly seats. Similarly, cognitively biased ruling elites, diplomats, intellectuals and main media sitcoms were sure that Maoist would never gain such a landslide victory out of CA elections. Obviously they read their own mind but failed to read the minds of Nepali people, particularly of the young population whose hope at this point lies on the Maoist leaderships. Such a massive wins even to Maoist leaderships have been beyond their expectation. Therefore, the Maoist chairman has made his statement public that his party will respect the mandate that people have given them to carry on behalf of the sovereign people of Nepal. Maoist victory in CA elections is as a result a positive democratic development of Nepal towards peace and prosperity.



First of all, it is guaranteed that Nepal will be transformed into a federal democratic republic under the Maoist leaderships. For example, if one of the status quo driven main political parties had the victory with simple majority of CA seats the chance for hurdle could have been greater for bringing such a transformation. This is what people have anticipated from them because people do not want any more civil unrest, violence and everyday life shutdown. Therefore, people have with the benefit of doubt chosen Maoist and have given a chance for them to give it a try. If Maoists respect the mandate that they have received from people with their full commitment to the multiparty democracy then Nepal can have win-win socio-political and economic developments. The only thing that Maoists have to demonstrate is the full compliance to the electoral democratic practice to be successful in establishing institutions of democracy, which in my opinion is not achievable from the status quo driven political parties without further hurdle and political unrest.



Whether Nepal will adopt a presidential or a parliamentary multiparty democratic system under the federal democratic republic setup the decision must be carefully crafted with the thorough consultations of the political parties that have won the CA seat (s) in the assembly prior to the final vote. However, the most important task of all is the restructuring of the state with the federal government system. Since the federal system of government is the most efficient structural decentralization of the state powers none of its sub-unit of the governments – state and local should have provision to become an independent state. The structure must be unique to the demographic that is based on the geographical, ethnical and linguistic distinctions. Most of all, the geographical distinction of the nation is the toughest yet important demography for the socio-political and economic developments. The federal structure is therefore essential for the nation's geographical demography in local level developments with the local level government responsibility.



As long as the federal democratic republic setup is established with the federal system of the government either system - the presidential or parliamentary does not really make that difference. However, the presidential system that has a popularly elected president from general election with term limit bring a more stable government system than the parliamentary system with party (s) nominated prime minister. Most importantly, in both systems the military must be controlled by the representatives of the House meaning without the votes of the House neither the president nor the prime minister can execute his or her power of commander-in-chief. The military provision must be clear and precise so that the presidential or the parliamentary system in any condition cannot mess-up with the democracy. This means the military must be solely under the control of the representatives of people and their central government. If such an electoral democratic setup is institutionalized then so called democratic status quo driven political parties must not worry unnecessarily. They should rather learn to trust the political party that has received the mandate of people with the simple majority.

Results of CA elections not only stunned the major political parties of Nepal with the great disappointments of their leaderships but also astonished Maoists themselves. The mandate is clear that permanent peace and democracy is prerequisite to create a new democratic Nepal. This means Maoists cannot mislead the people. Maoists must respect the mandate and honestly implement the federal democratic republic establishment with the democratic culture. They must not from the beginning, for example, ignore the etiquettes of democracy that give place and respect to all walks of life. Democracy cannot be justified for the power of one at the expense of other. I am sure that Maoist leaderships are sensible to these elements of democracy.



For example, coming to the power Maoists must not call for the immediate oust of the Interim Prime Minister who has earnestly conducted the CA elections impartially. The Interim Prime Minister must be honored with the national dignity for his dedication for peace, democracy and well being of people of Nepal with the grand state farewell reception. It is cheap to call him to step down at this historic achievement of people of Nepal. The CA elections were not war but were electoral democratic contests. Therefore parties, which have gained power, must observe the etiquettes of democracy. Maoists must maintain with dignity. The patience in democracy must not slip away with the election-win hyper-phobia. It was disgraceful if not formal democratic manner of MPRF chief Upendra Yadav to call Prime Minister for his immediate step-down.



Similarly, if the first meet of CA electoral succeeded in voting for the abolition of the institution of the monarchy Gyanendra Shah as the head of the institution should accept verdict to leave the institution, which he will, then Constituent Assembly must organize an formal farewell reception for him too. After all he is also one of the sovereign citizens of Nepal who has as a head of the institution of the monarchy accepted the mandate of the sovereign people of Nepal. He too should have place in democracy after the abolition of his institution for him to contribute to the nation in his own way. This is how Maoist can gain trust of people of Nepal and the international communalities if they can initiate such democratic culture. Political leaderships who are arrogant and incapable of practicing democratic etiquettes are disgraceful to the nation and the world.



The success of Maoist party in CA elections has wiped out the anti-republic and anti-federal system political parties known as royalist and communist nationalist as much as the individual candidates of the main political parties who were not sure about the radical change with the establishment of the federal democratic republic. Maoist as a leading political party of the constituent assembly must understand that people cannot be misled and therefore they must radically change themselves to fully comply with the culture of the multiparty democracy under the establishment of the federal democratic republic that can bring permanent peace, stable democracy and prosperity to people of Nepal.


Now on until the next general elections it all depends on Maoist party leaderships to create a new democratic Nepal that can deliver permanent peace, stable democracy and prosperity to people of Nepal. By alone Maoist party without the consensus of the other political parties in the multiparty democracy cannot legitimately accomplish the task of creating a new democratic Nepal. If they did then that will be unfortunate. However, the astonishment that they have received from the results of the free and fair CA elections that the international dignities and experts have monitored perhaps no communist party has ever received if not on the face of the earth but in Nepali history with that landslide victory. This is indeed a historic achievement of Maoist party that its leaderships and cadres cannot betray the people of Nepal and their aspiration for the multiparty democracy under the federal democratic republic establishment. This is a golden opportunity for both the Maoist party and people of Nepal for radically transforming Nepal to a new democratic nation.