THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY April 4, I959 First General Elections in -II

Kama Devi Pant AS had been anticipated, with the tions, etc, to prepare the people for be continued beyond closing time. announcement of the Constitu­ exercising their franchise for the But for the inefficiency of the return­ tion, the apathy and lack of en­ first time. ing officers who did not know the practical procedure and administra­ thusiasm vanished overnight, the The personnel loaned by friendly tive lapses, the percentage of poll­ atmosphere changed and interest In Governments have been helpful. ing would have been higher. the forthcoming elections became At the request of the Government quite lively. The parties knew what of Nepal, both India and Britain The following will probably bring they were contending for, the voters sent wireless detachments. In out how enthusiastic people have were less vague about what they eastern Nepal, fifteen wireless sta­ been in the exercise of their fran­ were to vote for; and canvassing tions with central control in Kath- chise. In a remote mountainous became quite vigorous. There was, mandu, were provided and operated village, out of 819 persons on the in short, an air of expectancy and by the British Gorkha detachment. voters' list, as many as 818 persons considerable excitement among the The Indian army signal detach­ exercised the franchise. This is people. The elections which are not ments are working in western perhaps a world record. In India, over yet have been conducted Nepal, Their assistance has made even in the second general elections, peacefully so far. it possible to speed up the election in some booths all the boxes were Organisational Dificulties work, to maintain contact between returned empty, while in Nepal's first different booths and to announce elections (as seen after the polling in The elections were scheduled to the results over Radio Nepal with­ 94 constituencies), not even a single be held in October 1957, but had out any loss of time. ballot box has come back empty. to be postponed till February 1959, Despite their illiteracy and complete The voting commenced on Febru­ Response of the Electorate absence of democratic tradition, the ary 18 and will be completed by At this writing, the results of 62 Nepalls have shown admirable poli­ April 3. To understand the reasons (more than half the total) consti­ tical consciousness. This is partly for the postponement as well as the tuencies have been announced. a result of the prevailing political spread of 45 days, one should appre­ From the voting, It is clear that instability (between 1951 through ciate the prevailing conditions, geo­ people took much greater interest 1958) which probably made them graphic and administrative, in in the elections than had been ex­ realise that representative government was the only solution of their Nepal. pected. Apart from Kathmandu problems. The topography of the country— and other district towns where the the sun-drenched tarai, deep valleys masses are supposed to be politic­ and high hills makes communica­ ally conscious, even in remote con­ How They Voted tions extremely difficult. In the stituencies, both in the hill regions Polling commenced on February mountainous regions of northern, and the Tarai plains, nearly 40 per 18. 109 candidates are to be elect­ eastern and western Nepal, the cent of the electorate exercised their ed to the House of Representatives snows do not melt even in March. franchise. True, in some places (the lower house) from as many To exercise his franchise, the elec­ voting was below 25 per cent, but single-member constituencies. Out tor has to walk five to six miles then, at others it exceeded even 40 of the estimated total population of to the booth. Supervision of polling per cent. This is certainly sur­ 8.55 million (1954) the electorate is in 4,000 booths in these conditions prising in a country where only six 4.25 million, about half the popula­ Is surely a stupendous job. Even per cent of the population is literate tion of the country. It was expect­ so, if trained personnel were avail­ and elections are being held for the ed that about 15 per cent of the able in adequate numbers, elections first time. In many booths, quite electorate in the hilly regions, about might have been held earlier, and a large number of people had to 35 per cent in the Tarai and about completed within a much shorter return disappointed as their names 40 per cent in the Kathmandu Val­ period. were not on the voters list. In ley would vote. However, so far some booths even those eligible to (March 22) the percentage has been Help from Outside vote could not exercise their fran­ much higher. Out of 2,492,850 The administrative set up in chise because the polling could not voters in 62 constituencies 1,056,898 Nepal, however, is both inadequate and antiquated. Government could not possibly spare the large num­ ber of officers which would be needed to conduct the polls, say, within a week. Anticipating the difficulties likely to be created by shortage of personnel, Government empowered the Election Commission to seek assistance from any Gov­ ernment Department. This the Commission did. It sent officers to different parts of the country to make the preliminary preparations. The officers had also to do propa­ ganda work, conduct mock elec- 488 April 4, 1959 T H E EC O NOMIC WE EKLY

have cast their votes, that is 42.39 per cent have exercised the fran­ chise. In certain constituencies, the percentage has, of course, been as low as 20. But on the whole the Election Commission has also esti­ mated that probably the average will be about 50 per cent. The results announced so far clearly indicate that the , as the single largest group, would be able to form the Government, though it may not get an absolute majority. This will, in other words, remove all doubts raised earlier by various groups that no single party would be able to command a majority. The re­ sults also make it clear that those parties which wished to postpone the elections did so to enable them to continue in office. They have also clearly exposed themselves, and now every Nepali knows the extent of exaggeration in their claims of influence with and support from the rank and file of the people, Prajatantriks Routed The results prove that certain leaders did not want elections, be­ cause they were afraid to go to the polls. It is an irony that leaders like Acharya, Regmi etc, should forfeit their deposits! So far Nepal Prajatantrik Mahasabha has lost all the 41 seats it contested and excepting its president, Shri Ranga Nath (who saved his deposit by only 9 votes) the party has lost deposits in all the seats, as it was not able to secure one-sixth of the total number of votes cast in each consti­ tuency. Two ministers (Regmi and Pande) in the existing Council of Ministers have already lost and in all about a dozen Ministers (both ex- and present) have lost their seats. Shri Suberna Shumsere (Nepali Congress), Chairman of the Council of Ministers, has won from a Gulmi constituency and all his opponents forfeited their deposits! With the liquidation of mushroom parties, the emergence of two or three important parties is on the cards, (whether they will have solid adherents, it is too early to say) and should this happen, Nepal politics may become stable. Coming of the Nepali Congress What would be the general trend of the country's development during the next five-year period, if the Nepali Congress forms the Ministry? Nothing can be predicted at this stage, since as explained in the pre­ vious article, the programmes given in the Manifesto do not appear to THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY April 4, 1959 be realistic and in any case they are just brief outlines. But future developments in the country will in all probability be oriented towards 'socialistic aims and ideals'. It is likely that the thirteen-point agra­ rian reform programme will be put through. Needless to say, in an agricultural country with 95 per cent of the people dependent on agri­ culture, agrarian reform is the very core of all the reforms. Basic industries, according to the party's manifesto, are to be state- owned with a bias on the develop­ ment of cottage and small-scale In­ dustries. Foreign capital will be given suitable protection. In fore­ ign affairs the Government will not be committed to any power block and will work for friendly relations between Nepal and other countries on terms of equality and mutual respect. Promises are also there to eradicate corruption and nepotism from administration. The party also envisages a decentralised pattern of administration. The New Constitution The new Constitution is only a little over a month old. Different views have been expressed regard­ ing the centralisation of power with the King. However, in the light of political events during the last ten years, if transition from more or less feudal stages to constitutional monarchy in Nepal is to be through a democratic process, this concen­ tration of authority would appear to be a safeguard rather than a limitation to its progress towards democracy. What a constitution provides for in effect is more im­ portant than the limitations con­ tained in it. It is a big advance that, notwithstanding the special prerogatives given to the King, the Constitution provides, for the first time in the country's history, for the evolution of a popular democratic rule.

Thus the over-all effect of the first general elections in Nepal will be the emergence of two or three political parties, and if the present trend continues, the country will have a Nepali Congress Ministry, With the establishment of some sort of political stability greater atten­ tion will be paid to the working of the Five Year Plan (which is almost half way through) as well as to social problems. (Concluded)

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