NEPALI POLITICS

  The Himalayan Times 29 December 2022 Parties’ unholy marriages In a dramatic upturn in the national politics, two differently principled communist parties, the UML and the CPN-MC, decided to reunite to form the next coalition government by partnering with five other parties, including the newly-formed RSP. The MC has dumped the pre-election alliance with the Nepali Congress (NC), making it the biggest loser, which has lost its claims for prestigious political and constitutional appointments, despite being the largest party in the House of Representatives (HoR). This is a clear example of “extreme opportunistic politics” played by the senior leaders who want to reach power by any means, leaving behind the national and common people’s issues and concerns.  INCOMPETENT FINANCE MINISTER Maoist Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal was sworn in on Monday as the new Prime Minister along with three deputy prime ministers and four ministers by the   President Bhandari “Dahal takes o...

The Himalayan Times 21 December 2022 Hung parliament The President on Sunday has called on the country’s political parties to try to form the new government within a week following the submission of the election by the Election Commission. If no party has a clear majority to represent in the House of Representatives (HoR), the President shall appoint a new prime minister, a member of the HoR, who is able to command a majority with the support of two or more parties represented in the HoR. After this official call from the President, the current ruling coalition led by the NC and the main opposition, UML, have started negotiations, discussions and even on bargaining over the formation of the next government. The current ruling coalition of five parties is in need of two seats to claim a majority of 138 seats in the 275 member HoR. Looking at this situation, in most likelihood, the five-party alliance, which has 136 seats and is short of just two seats to prove its majority, wi...

The Himalayan Times 16 December 2022 Undermining constitution Coalition politics means political principles of the partner political parties do not matter for joining hands together for doing undemocratic acts and do not care about even going beyond and undermining the constitution. This convenient political marriage takes place truly among Nepal’s political parties if none of them gets a majority in the general election, such as the case in the recently concluded federal and provincial elections. The five-party alliance, led by the NC, is determined to continue with the coalition government by hook and crook by wooing the fringe parties to join them even by freeing their cadre serving time in jail for crimes.  A “No-Not-Again” campaign, which was heavily run in the social media, urging voters not to re-elect the senior party leaders and other tainted leaders for their irresponsible political acts, remained partially successful. The people have been the victim of disinforma...

The Himalayan Times 9 December 2022 Impending political scenario Nepal conducted federal and provincial elections on November 20. Around 61 per cent of the people cast their votes as per the Election Commission (EC), which is six per cent less than presence in the local elections held earlier in May this year. With the unnatural five-party alliances, with hardly any ideological convergence and common minimum agenda led by the Nepali Congress (NC), this election in the country was a curious political case for the people. As the election results are now published, it appears distinctly that Nepal will have a hung parliament, which might be unfortunate for the people who were expecting to see a political stability in the country. The voting trend shows that the people are gradually changing their mind-set about the traditional political force through their ballots. EARN MONEY ONLINE The November 20 polls witnessed a wave of youngsters challenging the hegemony of the old guard ...