Can Nepal’s forthcoming election improve youth representation? 

Image credit: ifes.org

by Hari Prasad Shrestha    2 November 2022

The last local election of Nepal has put an interrogation mark on the performances of the political parties, by electing independent mayors in Kathmandu metropolitan city and some other sub-metropolitan cities.  The election contradicted the perception – to be victorious, one must pick one of the big political parties.

The success stories of independent mayors were shocking for political parties. It conveyed a message to party leaders either to bring changes in their prevalent mindset by offering maximum opportunities to capable youths or be ready to face the waves of voters’ cognizance in the next elections.

General elections, in Nepal, will be held on 20 November 2022 to elect the members of the House of Representatives along with provincial elections for the members of seven provincial assemblies.

Out of the five-party alliance led by Nepali Congress, which currently forms the federal government, four parties formalized an electoral alliance, both in federal and provincial elections, with the new entry of the Loktrantik Samajbadi Party. The main opposition, CPN (UML), has also made a limited alliance in selected constituencies with other opposition parties, including the Janta Samajbadi Party, which broke the alliance with the government.

As per media reports and public opinion, the coming election will be tough and unpredictable for political parties, and their elderly leaders as a new wave of youths in politics are surging. The days ahead could be challenging for them.

   Youth has played a leading role in major political revolutions in Nepal; however, they hardly get opportunities to lead important positions.

Youth are defined as people between 16 and 40 years old, constituting 40% of the population in Nepal. However, only 5 percent of the youth are represented in the federal parliament, as opposed to the global average of 13.5 percent.

Multi-party democracy can’t be imagined without or with weak political parties. When the existing party leaders fail to run the nation, youth leaders within the parties or people of similar thoughts in new parties emerge as a new optimism in politics.

After the local election, new thoughts surfaced between old and youth leaders in Nepal in balancing the political power to frame a shared vision in leading the nation.

As voters are tired of voting for candidates of political parties, who cannot make even small changes in their constituencies, they are looking for an appropriate opportunity and seeking younger generations to lead the politics.

Those who ruled for more than three decades never paid attention to these things as if they had no proper vision for the country, the political system is not properly functioning for the public’s wellbeing. People also had the wrong perception of politics as a public institution.

The political change has been favorable only for the party leaders and their nearest dearest, who successfully controlled key sectors of the state, flourishing politics as an industry.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Nepal’s politics has been an industry, which is thriving, and that all the tools of typical business analysis are pertinent here.

As the political industry is flourishing in Nepal by breaking the system and sub-systems of the state, it is an open secret that any important positions of the state, including members of parliament or ambassadorial positions, can be secured by a give-and-take deal with party leaders.

Nepal’s political parties have no principles, at any moment, any party can be united and break up in elections or during government formations.

As a result of continued untruthful political alliance and syndication for personal and party benefits, Nepal has been passing through grave conditions of instability, lawlessness, inequality, and mobocracy with extreme levels of frustration in public.

To be successful in politics, one must pick one side of the big party, because the big parties are so powerful that it would be challenging to win as an independent in the current system, how best one is. Compared to the local level, it is not easy for independent parliamentarians to face the political parties in the federal parliament. The independent member of parliament who won in the last federal election became futile after they entered political parties. 

Nepal, being a hybrid nation, has mixed regimes with some elements of democracy mixed with autocratic facets. Nepal presents an exterior of democracy but lacks its substantial elements. Mixed regimes are inherently more unstable and prone to chaos than either full democracies or autocracies.

In several countries, due to the weak rule of law, the elections do not meet international standards of being fully democratic and “free and fair.” And Nepal’s ability to freely exercise people’s voting rights is occasionally limited by sporadic outbursts of political violence, as well as by interferences of political musclemen during the voting process. Vote buying has been reported as an established illegal practice in elections.

As the top leaders of big political parties are old aged with mediocre records, and they have been tested and failed, several times. Besides, they lack the vision to drive the development initiatives and give proper direction to what kind of future Nepal should have. They have been always in power because of the power and resources concentrated on them.

Now it looks like a proper moment for the honest and capable young generation, both within the parties and independently, to be ready to replace the elderly leaders in the forthcoming election. The voters expect this generation to have new ideas and enthusiasm with transformative accomplishments.

It should be kept in mind that as the constitution has requirements for women and minorities, including indigenous and Dalits participation, who have been underrepresented in politics, they must be given optimum opportunities in leadership and decision-making positions.

In the coming election, many senior party leaders are not feeling secure with their future, and they fear contesting in a first-past-the-post (FPTP) direct electoral system of parliament. To secure their position in parliament, they have been prioritized in the list of proportional electoral systems by skipping direct elections. Even some heavy-weight candidates are contesting from new electorates as they felt insecure in their previous constituencies. Moreover, some appeal to voters, baffling their last inning in politics.

This indicates their shrinking reputation and fear of being outvoted by the voters. On the contrary, the young generation seems more energetic and confident, a sign of the rise of youth representation in the coming general elections.