Let us all congratulate our Election Commission wallahs for successfully conducting the first phase of the local elections in the country. But they failed miserably to educate the voters on how to exercise their right to choose the local representatives.
And they got to spend more millions of dollars on voter education and most of us were confused and had to spend quite a time to figure out the ballot paper. Most of us had to stay in line for hours. Well, that is expected but then we were handed the ballot paper the size we had never seen before. I guess the EC folks had no choice but had to fit in all the independent candidates.
Maybe, we should have a new law that requires any independent candidate to at least gather hundred signatures from the local residents before they are allowed to file their candidacy to fight the ward and village level elections. And if you are running for Mayor then at least 1,000 signatures should be the minimum requirement to stand up for election for that position.
That would at least save the EC wallahs a lot of money if the ballot paper is more of a A4 size than big enough to cover a window. And why on earth are folks who know that they will not even get a dozen votes running for Ward chairperson and Mayors? I guess they just have a little bit more money than the rest of us and want to spend it on their own few dozen karyakartas as we all need some chiya kharcha.
Those who were voting for major political parties had it easy. Just stamp the swastika on the same line and get done with it. For some of us who wanted to vote for the most competent ones and crossed over the party line had a tough time figuring out where they were.
And if you were voting for independent candidates only then it probably took you more than ten minutes figuring out where their election symbols stood.
And the EC folks should be better prepared next time when the second phase of the local elections are done with because we don't want to wait a week or two to find out who won in our neighborhood. Please hire more personnel and at least try to finish the vote counting within 72 hours.
It's been nearly five days since I voted and it will probably take another few days before I find out who won in my ward. The mayor race seems to be more interesting for folks living in the cities. The race for mayor in Lalitpur is tight whereas UML seems to be the one heading the Kathmandu Metropolitan City for the next five years. But you never know, they still have to count the votes in more than half the wards yet.
But everyone seems to be interested in Bharatpur Municipality, especially the ones like us who don't even live there and the only time we are in Chitwan is when go to the Safari or on our way to other cities. Our Emperor's daughter stood up for election and our King Deuba did his thing by not allowing the candidate from his own party to stand up for election. But it seems that UML is likely to win there but we never know what happens at the end. Lots of money has been spent on the election there and there might be new deals along the way as well.
Our Emperor knows a thing or two about making deals where it matters. After all, he did win from Siraha the last time around even though he lost heavily in Kirtipur. But it seems that most of the voters have rejected the alliances made by the top leaders of their parties. And it may be time for Deuba to retire from politics as well. Yes, please stop ruining this country with your own self-interest.
Our Emperor will be moving out of Baluwatar next week and once again it's King Deuba's turn to rake in the moolah. This is the same man who decided not to hold the local elections last time he was the Prime Monster. And now, he will be the one in charge when we have the second phase of the local elections in this country.
And we still have to get done with our provincial and national elections as well. Deuba will be minting money everywhere. If there is any new deals to be made then do not contact him.
Just contact his brother –in-law who now has the opportunity to make some more like he did when we had the so-called civil war in this land and some folks made tons of money by buying arms from foreign lands. But of course, we cannot blame King Deuba alone.
After all, he is good at what he does. He is a politician and he has to do what's best for himself, his near and dear ones , his party, his cadres and his chamchas. The common folks can just drink doodh chiya at the loca chiya pasal, curse, vent, criticize all they want but at the end of the day, the chors run this country and they will do everything possible to take us down the drain.
In a few days, we will be welcoming our Mayors in the valley. They will have five years to fulfill their promises. I think our Mayors from Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur should have a monthly lunch meeting in Dhulikhel and work together to connect and make our valley clean, green and beautiful once again.
And what our Bibeksheel and Sajha folks can learn from this election is that they should unite and start connecting with the locals so that come next election, we will have the new and young competent candidates running our municipalities rather than the same old party hags!
Guffadi is a grumpy old man who blogs at guffadi.blogspot.com. You may contact him at maguffadi@gmail.com
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