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#395 11 - 17 April 2008 16 pages Rs 30 Weekly Internet Poll # 395 Q. What do you expect the elections to be? Total votes: 6,269 Bullet to ballot Weekly Internet Poll # 396. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Q. Which party do you expect to get the highest number of votes in the direct ballot of the elections? JANAK ARYAL SAM KANG LI he Nepali people have here polls have been postponed. SOLDIER-STATESMAN: Prime Minister Koirala (right) casts his ballot in once more proved But out of the 20,810 polling his hometown of Biratnagar on Thursday morning. The ageing Koirala T doomsdayers wrong. By centres, polls had been has been worried about his legacy and had told his physicians: “Keep turning out in overwhelming postponed in 21. None of these me alive till elections.” Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal (left) has numbers to vote, Thursday’s were in any of the far-western his privacy invaded by media as he votes in Bharatpur. This is the first time he has voted since the 1980 referendum on the monarchy. election became a referendum for districts, even though turnout peace, justice and development. there was lower. elections because no candidate had Even in the hotspots where In the western hills, polling come to canvass. In the eastern Tarai FREE WITH THIS ISSUE much violence was predicted, continued even in places where it districts of Saptari, Siraha and FOR SUBSCRIBERS voting was peaceful and orderly. had been temporarily suspended Sarlahi, polling was suspended in The turnout exceeded even the after clashes between rival only two centres. Election Comission’s most parties. However, the UML In Ramechhap Maoists blocked optimistic scenario. By Thursday reported the Maoists were roads leading to polling centres in afternoon as this paper went to preventing their supporters from Doramaba and in Chitwan, YCL press, over 75 percent of the voting in some places in the cadre threw ballot boxes into the electorate had cast their ballots in afternoon. Rapti River. NC and UML cadres Morang and Sunsari. In Chitwan, Among the trouble spots was have also engaged in violence in the figure was 75 percent. Turnout the Maoist ‘base area’ of Rolpa parts of Dolakha, while it has been in the far-west till about 3PM was where all booths in constituency the Jana Morcha that has been 60 percent. 1 were captured by Maoists. beating up UML and NC candidates It was Kathmandu Valley Booths were also captured in in Baglung. where the turnout was lower, Thawang and Rangsi. Nineteen Reported by Dewan Rai with only 55 percent till 3PM. By booths were captured by Maoists PHOTOJOURNAL 2008 that time in rural Sindhuli, Parsa in rukum. The NC and UML have Editorial p2 From People’s Movement and Rautahat, 70 percent of the asked for repolling in these Comment Kanak Mani Dixit p2 to Constituent Assembly people had voted. centres. There were electoral hotspots In Nar and Phu in Manang it State of the State CK Lal p3 Himalmedia wishes its where trouble was expected, and was the voters who boycotted What next for the monarchy? p4 readers and advertisers a very happy and E-Day in pictures p8-9 peaceful 2065. TARAI EYE Prashant Jha p10 After elections, what? p12-13 2 EDITORIAL 11 - 17 APRIL 2008 #395 Published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Editor: Kunda Dixit Commission according to the CEO: Ashutosh Tiwari Design: Kiran Maharjan Director Sales and Marketing: Sunaina Shah [email protected] population categories, will make Marketing Manager: Sambhu Guragain Asst Managers: Deepak Sangraula, Subhash Kumar, Tanka Sitaula the CA among the most inclusive Circulation Manager: Samir Maharjan [email protected] legislative bodies in the world. Hatiban, Godavari Road, Lalitpur [email protected] GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu 5250333/845, Fax: 5251013 While the Assembly itself www.nepalitimes.com Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hatiban: 5250017-19 Lost time will be relatively inclusive and The real work now begins representative, a countrywide participatory consultative to build a New Nepal process must support the A NEW PAGE assembly and allow the citizens For the past year, local and expat naysayers in Kathmandu hey said the people would ahead, including the vulnerable to own the document that insisted that there was no way elections could be held. Even till never rise up, until the period over the next three weeks emerges. It is the new last week, these nabobs of negativism were predicting the end of T People’s Movement while the ballots are counted. The constitution, more than any Nepal if elections went ahead. surprised us all. They said the political party that gets the largest institution, language or Even if they are proved wrong, doomsdayers don’t change into parliament could never be number of votes will take the lead manufactured mythology, that optimists overnight. And now that elections have been held, they revived, but it sprang to life. in fashioning the new polity, but will henceforth provide the glue are predicting chaos, anarchy, disintegration and hellfire in the They said elections would never it must carry along all political to bind the people of Nepal. coming months. There is a danger that their cynicism will be a happen after being twice forces including the Maoists in The Assembly’s other task is self-fulfilling prophecy, and it is now up to the elected postponed, but it happened. Now the running of the government of course to serve as a legislature representatives to prove them wrong. they tell us there will be chaos and drafting the constitution. What gives us hope has been the ability of widely opposed to back and watchdog the parties to come this far in the past two years. Given the after the elections. How many The assembly has to be called executive branch over the next fractiousness, narrow mindedness and political myopia of our more times do you want to be within 21 days of the final two years and more. leaders, this is something of a miracle. We expected a threshold of wrong? results. The first task at hand will Immediately, it will be violence because one of the protagonists was till two years ago an be the parties acting on their important to separate the underground guerrilla force. manifestos to declare the country positions of head of state and No more do our date-expired politicians now have to invoke the COMMENT a republic. To be gracious, the head of government, mandate of street protests. From now on their legitimacy comes Kanak Mani Dixit historical kingship can be responsibilities borne over the from the people’s mandate. The Nepali people voted with thanked for its role in the creation last two years by Girija Prasad enthusiasm and hope on Thursday, and their wish must be of the nation state 239 years ago. Koirala. The ministers of the respected. That is what democracy is all about, and that is what we The sheer willpower of the As the constitution-making coalition government which all fought to restore. citizenry that generated the begins in earnest, the 601 framers But this democracy is fragile and the road ahead is a political emerges in the days ahead will minefield. The 601-member assembly will have to deal with People’s Movement has propelled must start with a philosophical have to be answerable to the sensitive issues like the abolition of monarchy, federalism, us into the Constituent commitment to values incuded in prime minister rather than to tackling the competing demands for ethnic representation that were Assembly. The constitution will the superseded 1990 constitution: their individual party bosses. put on hold for the polls, the future of Maoist combatants. get written amidst turbulence, multiparty pluralism, The new government must Nepal’s status quoists will not give up without a struggle and but it will be written. Nepal is representative government, make haste to ensure that the reformers will need unity and a sense of destiny. But over and just not structured to deliver a fundamental freedoms and people begin to enjoy the long- beyond all the political issues that have to be resolved, the cut-and-dried peace process to human rights. delayed peace dividend, and it assembly has to catch up with lost time on the economy and those who want to wrap it up Looking beyond, a set of draft must energetically restart development. The people have been waiting patiently for the and be gone to the next world directive principles developed by development projects after a politics to sort itself out and haven’t clamoured too noisily for the hotspot. Instead, we muddle the Interim Parliament decade of waiting. The peace dividend. through and get ahead, with the (‘federalism’, ‘secularism’ and Let the new representatives not mistake that for docility. Most international community must people don’t care about the arcane debates on monarchy vs political parties in command of ‘inclusion’ included) will serve help. republic, they care about jobs, roads, health posts and schools. the speed and the direction. as the basis for the sovereign There is so much more that And if they don’t see their lives improve even after these elections, The Constituent Assembly is Assembly to begin work on the needs to be done, to give the their disappointment can easily turn to anger. not just part and parcel of the developing a samabesi loktantra. public confidence in state Ultimately, legitimacy doesn’t just come from the ballot. It peace process, but a state- The definition of federalism will administration and rule of law. comes from performance and delivery. restructuring exercise foremost.