After the victory of Balen Shah, Harka Sampang and Gopal Hamal in the position of Mayors of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Dharan and Dhangadhi Sub Metropolitan Cities, the fresh political headwinds is believed to blow towards new wider paths from its traditional narrow pathways. The general public in Nepal have great expectations from them as they are exceptionally popular in the public eyes with a good support . Among them, the Mayor of Kathmandu, Balen Shah is not only popular in Kathmandu Metropolitan City for his work but he is emerging as a new national figure and people in many other countries are known for his good work. Compared to these small numbers of independent mayors, the candidates of political parties have been elected and secured the majority of electoral positions in most of the municipalities, however these independents have overshadowed most of them, by their performances. Even the federal and provincial governments including some political parties are finding difficulties in facing the general public, who have high hopes in favor of independent mayors. The rising people’s trust in independents is posing a threat to party politicians, however many politicians are not ready to accept it.
An independent politician is not affiliated with any political party and has political views that do not align with the platforms of any political party. They can contest elections on the basis of their personal appeal or to promote an ideology different from any party. On the contrary, the members of a political party contest elections under a party label. The political parties have nationwide wider networking and responsibilities whereas the independents are limited to their respective constituencies. An independent office bearer is a single person, who is responsible individually for his jobs, however the office bearer, elected under political parties, is responsible individually for his job and with the affiliated political party as well.
Nearly all democratic countries have strong political parties, and many political scientists consider countries with fewer than two parties to necessarily be less democratic. Some countries and monarchies have no legal political parties, where political parties are banned; candidates must be independent there. Such countries are Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Niue and Tuvalu. Political parties are also banned under the current Taliban government in Afghanistan. George Washington is the only U.S. president elected as an independent to date. The President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev is an independent with support from the Bulgarian Socialist Party, elected in the 2016. An independent politician can enter into parliament only if they gather enough votes to pass the 4% threshold, thus behaving like political parties. Independent candidates are allowed in many countries of the world, except few countries like Brazil and Costa Rica where they are not allowed to contest elections.
In a directly elected position, whether it is president or other executive heads, an independent candidate has the possibility to contest and win, however in a parliamentary system where heads of the governments are elected through votes of members of parliament, it is almost impossible for independent candidates to be in the driving seat of the government. The voice for directly elected executive head is also on the rise in Nepal, however due to growing populism in politics, the bigger political parties would not be ready to accept it. Therefore, the role of the top leaders of the political parties who lead the government, at the federal level is crucial for national prosperity and stability. There are many such examples of the federal leaders in the world who have changed their nation within a short span of time.
For example, the long serving Prime Minister Magathir Mohamad of Malaysia and President Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore were the exemplary strong leaders, who transformed the nation from a third world nation to a developed nation, within their lifetime. As prime minister from 1959 to 1990, Lee presided over many of Singapore’s advancements. He oversaw Singapore’s transformation from an island nation with a high illiteracy rate and no natural resources into a developed country with a high-income economy within a single generation, commonly termed as ‘From the third world to the first world’.
Similarly, in 1991,Mahathir announced Vision 2020, under which Malaysia aimed to become a fully developed country within 30 years.The target would require average economic growth of approximately seven per cent of gross domestic product per annum by accelerating all productive sectors equally and rapid development of infrastructures as well. One of Vision 2020’s features would be to gradually break down ethnic barriers, under which some government programs designed to benefit the bumiputera exclusively were opened up to other ethnicities. He accomplished most of his goals.
Such leaderships in the Nepalese perspective would be early to imagine.
Almost all political parties and their leadership in Nepal need to focus on accomplishment rather than wasting the time by putting the old wine in new bottles, repeating the same faces. It does not mean that candidates elected through the party tickets are not performing well, however they need to do better than the independent candidates. Ultimately, people want to see accomplishments, whether it is by the independents or by party politicians in their constituencies. For better performances, both the independent and party candidates have to work through support of people or officials under them. The people are the greatest assets in both the systems. If a system works properly, both could achieve their goal equally in an easy way. If we observe the global scenario, the political parties have become a major driving force for a nation and modern party organizations have developed and spread around the world for transformation of respective countries.
However, the image of political parties and their leaders in Nepal have been the center of criticisms as people even if they vote for them. Even the small numbers of independents are becoming a heavy weight on most of them, how delicate the foundations of our party politicians are? The young generations in political parties are still not in decisive positions and the bigger parties are in the stage of squeezing in Nepal due to the increased numbers of new political parties and independent politicians. The current coalition between two largest parties in Nepal is also the result of a rise in pushing factors of smaller parties and independents as well. The new entrance of the young generation through independent and party politics are on the rise and their possible unity in forming a new political party could pose additional pressures and challenges to non performing old political parties in days to come.
No one had expectations that the city of Kathmandu would change its face after the rise of Mayor Balen Shah.
The waves of support for better performances of independent mayors have opened the opportunities for independents to increase their numbers in the next local level election. Big party leaders should learn lessons from their good works by supporting and encouraging them by changing their style of working to be the real guardians of the nation. As a result of better accomplishments of independents compared to office bearers of political parties, there is a growing demand for nonpartisan office holders at local levels of government and a discussion has also started to make the local government elections based on only independent candidates, free from party politics.