The Political Consensus & Logical Sequence of People's Mandate of Nepal

Author: Prakash Bom

People have on April Uprising and on the successful CA elections demonstrated the historical people's mandate. Now it is up to the political parties to follow its logical sequence in coordination with their political consensus for creating a new democratic Nepal. Obviously as per the interim constitution and Seven-Party-Alliance consensus the next logical sequence of people's mandate is to set the first-meet of Constituent Assembly electoral for deciding the fate of two hundred fifty years old institution of feudal monarchy. The logical priority of people's mandate is set onto the Constituent Assembly's decision-making process for another historical change but not on the formation of a new cabinet or resignation of Interim Prime Minister. CA has the constitutional obligation to process such a historical change for the people and the nation. Therefore members of SPA must not mess-up the historical process with the outcome of CA elections rather they should be able to make consensus with respect to people's consent.    

First of all, Maoist party has not secured two-third or over 60% of seats out of 601 constituent assembly seats. This means Maoist party has no clear majority to form a new government as per the provision of the interim constitution in order to oust the Prime Minister to lead the government. Nonetheless it has emerged, as a major political party winning over 220 seats of CA. However it does not mean that Maoist party has to lead the government. If it does then it is premature and it is thoughtlessly ambitious. Because the nation has on the one hand powerless-suspended head of the state (the feudal institution of monarchy) and on other hand the interim head of the state (Prime Minister of Nepal). Ideologically, such a political condition should not be applicable to Maoist party to lead the next government as a federal democratic republican without deciding the fate of powerless-suspended head of the state. In this regrad the political integrity of Maoist party is questionable because it will be double standard of party to lead the government at this point in time. Maoists better be patience to follow the next logical yet historical sequence of people's mandate on the fate of the feudal monarchy.

It is amazing how sporadically political monologues occur among the political parties and how hyperbolically Nepali media interpret. But the democracy does not function without dialogue for consensus and without authentic media representation. For example, Maoist party leaderships claiming to lead the new government without aforementioned reasoning and the respect to the logical sequence of people's mandate is indeed premature and illogical political development. To my surprise there has been no media point of view that could question such illogical political development. 

Honorably Maoist party has no political platform to lead a new government prior to the first-meet of CA electoral that will decide the fate of the feudal monarchy. The first and foremost responsibility of Maoist party as a major CA political party is to lead the first-meet of CA electoral to success. It seems as if Maoist party is more in rush to grab the power with its intention to form a new government than leading the people's mandate to the next logical yet historical sequence to be successful. How could Maoist party imagine leading the government without clearing a dual head of the state status – suspended and interim? Therefore the responsibility of the Maoist party as a major political party in CA is to accomplish the successful first-meet of Constituent Assembly to decide the fate of the feudal monarchy as per the Interim Constitution and the SPA political consensus. Prior to carrying out this responsibility Maoist party has no consent of people to form a new government. It should be Maoists' political and ethical accountability.

For this reason under the current political platform a coalition government under the leadership of Prime Minister GP Koirala is the most viable choice to make the decision of the first-meet CA electoral legitimate and historic. A coalition government must of course be re-form with the elected CA party representation based on the percentage system meaning the baseline for the percent must be set to minimum for the cabinet member. It is neither the NC nor the Maoist lead such a coalition government but GP Koirala in honor to playing major role to bring peace and democracy to people of Nepal with the consensus of the major political parties until the first-meet of CA straights it out the dual-head of the state status.

Even after it can be relevant for GP Koirala to continue with the political consensus of the major political parties to lead the coalition government until the draft of the constitution of a federal democratic republic is finalized. Because there are many political issues that need the unanimous consensus of vote in CA of the major political parties – Maoist, NC and UML. For example, the question of national integrity in terms of demand of a homogenous Madhesi region for Terai states. MPRF is about to bring this card to be used on the first-meat of CA.

The major political parties will have to find out whether Madhesi issue will politically secure the rights of other ethnic group of people in Terai such as Tharu or wipes them out in the homogeneity of the Maithali and Bhojpuri dominations; whether such issue has chance to disintegrate the nation or not; whether region of Madhes should be within the cultural demography of Maithali and Bhojpuri linguistic groups. Their CA vote will be deciding point on this issue. Maoist as a major CA political party must establish trustful coalition with NC and UML to lead the nation as per the people's mandate. So as NC and UML must not be dead-meat bitter to Maoists because they are the ones who have attempted to bring Maoists to mainstream politics. Therefore they must take this moral responsibility until a new federal democratic republic Nepal is created.

 It is nothing but an irrelevant issue whether NC and UML should join Maoist led government. Perhaps it is not that rational response if not it is a lament for winning CA elections below the expectation. However, the political processes for Maoist to lead a new government are not immediate but not possible. Moreover, if the democratic parties cannot put up with the loss then it is better not to call them democratic parties. If they do then they must respond rationally as relevant to the political developments. It is for sure that at this transition period the nation desperately needs the unanimous support of major political parties – Maoist, NC and UML. If all elected CA political parties respect the electoral process of constituent assembly then there is a role of the major political parties for the clear majority of two-third of CA votes. For Maoists to politically process the constitutional provisions for forming a new government such majority in CA is indispensable.

All in all, Maoists yet have to democratize their party and sister organizations such as YCL with compliance to democratic culture. In order to secure the political consensus from other major political parties – NC and UML Maoists have to complete the return of the confiscated property, facilitate the displaced to their respective home, give up the control of public and government properties and stop assaulting and abducting as per SPA agreements. Most importantly Maoists must not bargain national integrity for political power thereby must protect rights of the ethnic minorities from being wiped out by the political movement of the homogeneity for a greater ethnicity. Those are ethnic minorities who have largely voted for the Maoist party to be a major political party out of CA elections.