Act on your words

Big parties have committed to fighting elections on their own strength. There is room for doubt.

The two biggest parties of the country, which are also in a ruling coalition, have committed to fighting upcoming elections on their own. In fact, the CPN (Maoist Centre), the main opposition, has made the same commitment. This is great news. It is about time the real strength of these parties was tested. Yet there is room to doubt their public stand. Nepal’s current electoral system makes it impossible for any one party to get an absolute majority and there is no alternative to forging an alliance to run the country. So the political parties are tempted to strike pre-election alliances. The Nepali parties are not confident of their popularity: The established ones can no longer count on their traditional vote-banks; nor are the newer outfits assured of their own vote-mobilisation skills. Thus whatever political parties big and small say now, they are likely to seek pre-election alliances for the 2027 vote.