HELLO NEPAL

The Kathmandu Post 29 December 2017 STOP POLITICAL TUSSLE The country has almost entered into a federal structure based on the new constitution following the completion of three levels of elections. Elected representatives at the local level have now taken up their respective seats and started carrying out their responsibilities despite financial and human resource crunches. The formation of local level governments comprising the leaders of different political parties has been significant in terms of uplifting true democratic process. However, the services rendered by them in most of the places have not been effective in meeting the high expectation of the common people for different reasons. The ongoing political tussle between the Mayor Bidhya Sunder Shakya who had won the seat on a UML ticket and Deputy Mayor Hari Prabha Khadgi, a Nepali Congress (NC) leader of Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) about the reconstruction of Rani Pokhari has been a worst example of misu

The Kathmandu Post 22 December 2017 TIME WILL TELL The recently concluded three tiers of elections have been instrumental in the implementation of the new constitution and in giving Nepal a new, federal political structure. Some political parties performed extremely well but some could not perform as expected. Among the major parties, left alliance comprising the UML and CPN (Maoist Centre) was successful in winning the hearts of a majority of the voters. Nepali Congress (NC) was a big loser in both the provincial and federal level polls for a number of reasons. Also, the new political forces such as Bibeksheel Sajha were not entirely able to convince voters either- due to their limited political background or because they fielded candidates who were not as less popular. Now, the time has come for the left alliance to be fully prepared to lead the country towards peace and prosperity as per their promises made during the election campaign. The days ahead are full of chall

The Himalayan Times 21 December 2017 Voters’ expectations After all the elections held successfully under the federal structure according to the new statute, left alliance comprising the UML and CPN-MC won the comfortable majority leaving behind the Nepali Congress (NC). Still, the official result under the Proportional Representation (PR) system is yet to be announced by the Election Commission (EC) based on the ‘Sainte-League’ system. However, the estimated number of seats under this system shows that the UML and NC are neck to neck in PR seats. It looks interesting while closely observing the polling results that the voters, who were tired of seeing frequent changes of government in the past, wanted to see the left alliance run the country for the next five years while NC sitting in the opposition. Now, the time has come for the left alliance to form a new government with able, sincere, committed and honest ministers with appropriate portfolios. The new government need

The Kathmandu Post 15 December 2017 S0UL SEARCHING All the local, provincial and federal level elections were successfully held in accordance with the new constitution. Voters enthusiastically participated in all the polls regardless of sporadic bomb blasts and attacks on candidates. Vote counting under the First Past The Post (FPTP) system of the provincial and federal elections are over. Total votes cast under the Proportional Representation system will be distributed among the contesting political parties using the ‘Sainte-League’ formula. Under this system, each party’s votes are divided by a sequence of odd numbers until enough quotients are found to allocate all 110 seats of the House (“How PR seats are allocated” Page 2,December 13). The left alliance comprising the UML and CPN-MC has won the majority seats in both the provincial and federal elections. This indicates that the voters wanted to see a change in the existing political environment. The frequent change

The Himalayan Times 14 December 2017 Opportunity for growths  Finally, the second phase elections are over and voting results are almost over. Speculation was rife that Deuba led government might not be able to hold the elections on time considering his past political image. However, he was able to clear his blurred political image by successfully holding the provincial and federal elections. The successful completion of all the polls has now enhanced the implementation of new constitution for which serious concerns and doubts were raised by internal and international communities. Now, the real challenges will start for the new government to be in place soon after the completion of counting of votes for the overall management of the provincial and federal government. It is sure that the left alliance will have the opportunity to form the new government in accordance with the new statute after it won a comfortable majority in both the provincial and federal elections. The

The Kathmandu Post 8 December 2017 GROSS NEGLIGENCE The local level elections were held almost three months ago under the new federal structure based on the new constitution. All the political members for the local bodies were elected accordingly. People had high expectations of their local governments providing them with necessary services at their door steps after a gap of almost 20 years. Until now, their expectations have remained unfulfilled due to gross negligence of the central government, especially the Ministry of General Administration and Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development. Dozens of local government units across the country are still without executives. The government has yet to deploy executives to two metropolises, 21 municipalities and 52 rural municipalities and 3,900 wards of the local level bodies. Of the total six metropolises in the country, only four have got joint secretaries. Likewise, 21 out of 276 municipalities are yet to get execu

The Himalayan Times 7 December 2017 Deserving decision More than 400,000 migrant workers are working in the gulf region as the semi and non-skilled workers. Millions of foreign currencies are entered into the country as the remittance on a monthly basis. Nepal is a country that receives one of the highest proportions of remittance in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) in the world.  In fact, remittances account for 30 percent of the country’s GDP. However, the funds from remittances are mostly being used as a means for survival of their families. So far, there are no other provisions of the government for giving benefits except providing compensation of Rs. 700,000 to the immediate family of the migrant workers in case of their death or if they are critically injured or serious ill while working abroad. It was wonderful to know that the children of migrant workers will be provided with free technical education effective beginning of March 2018 “Free technical education

The Kathmandu Post 1 December 2017 LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE The first phase of provincial and federal election just concluded in 32 districts with minimal disturbances, albeit a dozen security incidents took place in some districts. Early estimates put the turnout at 65 percent which is low as compared to overall national turnout, close to 75 percent for the local polls that took place in the summer. Most of the districts in the first phase polls were relatively inaccessible and mountainous. Few districts in the Midwestern region were relatively volatile being traditional Maoist hotbed. Nonetheless, the voters did not seem to be deterred by showing their desires to exercise their democratic rights. The national turnout is expected to improve once the elections are held in valleys, hills and Tarai districts in December 7. Now, the major parties have started concentrating their election campaign for the second phase polls, despite incidents of bomb blasts and attack on candi