What’s different?

The failure of parties to commit to a radical change in their candidate selection process is disappointing.

Under three months remain for the scheduled March 5 polls, with a total of 119 parties in the fray. Many of these are established outfits or their offshoots, formed after party mergers and splits. Yet there are also a few new ones that have emerged following the Gen Z uprising. Old or new, they will be taking part in elections being held in extraordinary times, when the previous elected government was removed not through the ballot box but by a revolt. This revolt spearheaded by members of the Gen Z had various demands, yet a central thread ran through them all. The people who came out on the streets all over Nepal on September 8 and 9—and who were supported by the intelligentsia, the media and a broad spectrum of society—said with one voice that they had had enough of same-old leaders running the country for decades. They spoke in favour of a generational change. Yet it was not just a call for a change of political leadership. In its spirit, the call was for a top-to-bottom shake-up of the state structure, making it younger, more inclusive and more service-oriented. Quite logically, this cannot be done by electing the same-old legislators with the same-old ideas working on the same-old problems.