Local Level Election: Issues of Political Representation
Rajendra Bahadur Singh,
March 14, 2022, My Republica
The ambiguous
and unclear provisions in the election laws which are hampering the political
representation of all should be further simplified so that everyone can see
everyone’s representative in the mirror of local government.
The House of Representatives (HoR) is called so because its
members or representatives represent the voice of the people who they
represent.
It could be about two and a half years ago, when an indigenous,
female member of the House of Representatives from a remote part of the country
was making some remarks on political representation, developmental issues, and
economic empowerment of women in the House, some of her fellow members erupted
in laughter, others were chuckling. The remaining were in dismay and despair.
The lawmaker’s expressions also went viral on social media. Viewers found it
amusing.
It was not a matter that she was trying to be sarcastic or nor
was she telling a joke. Rather, she was representing and recording the actual
voice of her fellow people who she belongs to and represents. In fact, no other
people under the sun and moon could represent their fellow people in a way better
than she was representing in the House. That is because she was expressing her
thoughts using the same gestures, colloquial-ness, tone, juncture, tempo, and
attire as her fellow people would do while expressing their thoughts or
interacting with others in life. She evoked her fellow people in her
expressions as it is in the House.
If you compare your representative with her, you can see an
ocean of difference between them. I can confirm that your representative can
not feel like you; neither can s/he speak like you nor can s/he lead his/her
life as you are living. You will realize that your representative turned into a
gluttonous, lavish, eloquent and palatial fellow after s/he got elected. All
s/he wants now is to rise up to the so-called ‘upper class’ and ‘high
positions’ in any way possible. Your ways and goals of living do not match with
those of your representative. Now, s/he belongs to your community no longer.
You got misrepresented. Your so-called representative can represent you in no
way.
At this juncture, political scientists who believe that
subalterns cannot speak up, cannot represent themselves and someone out of
their community needs to represent them, could also be proved wrong. Their
stance is wrong because even if the female lawmaker mentioned at the beginning
of the article belongs to a remote area and a downtrodden community, she was
representing and reflecting her fellow people in the House in a factual
sense.
Such scenes are frequently seen in the other provincial and
local level governments, too. It is a representative example in the sphere of
political representation and participation. If so, then why did her colleagues
in the House laugh at her as if she was the odd one out?
The House of Representatives is a miniature of our community because
it is composed of people from our communities. It is therefore spontaneous that
it resembles the traits that we are living with; it exhibits the community
psychology that prevails in our communities. But the above incident shows that
it is not proactive to accept and adopt the different values, and realities
prevailing in our communities readily even if the Constitution of Nepal
enshrines in its Part I, Article 3 as ‘all the Nepalese people, with
multiethnic, multilingual, multi-religious, multicultural characteristics and
in geographical diversities, and having common aspirations and being united by
a bond of allegiance to national independence, territorial integrity, national
interest and prosperity of Nepal, collectively constitute the nation.’
To materialize and channelize the words and spirit of the
constitutional provision, the political actors should go for rigorous
discussions and consultations with parties, the Election Commission Nepal,
election law experts, accessible election experts, and civil society
organizations; they may come up with some important insights to make an
accessible electoral system which in turn, ensures the political representation
and participation of all. The community psychology with which the political
actors are ingrained is difficult to overcome but not impossible to get rid of.
The Constitution has adopted the principle of
proportional-participatory, and inclusive political representation to ensure
the political representation and participation of all in all state bodies.
Article 41 of the Constitution says ‘the socially backward women, Dalit,
indigenous people, indigenous nationalities, Madhesi, Tharu, minorities, person
with disabilities, marginalized communities, muslims, backward classes, gender
and sexual minorities, youths, farmers, laborers, oppressed or citizens of
backward regions and indigenous Khas Arya shall have the right to participate
in the State bodies on the basis of inclusive principle.’ Aligning with this
constitutional provision, the Local Level Election Act-2017 should be amended.
Political parties also should be proactive to nominate their candidacies from
these groups of people in the upcoming local level election voluntarily so that
their political representation can be ensured. They should maintain internal
democracy by setting positive discrimination provisions for these groups of
people in the their statutes and manifestoes. Political parties can also set
common provisions to ensure the political representation of these groups of
people.
The local governments, in our context, have started to be
perceived as the nearest government. But they could remain as the nearest and
dearest governments in the long run only if they ensure meaningful
representation and active political participation of all. So, everyone can take
ownership of it. The Local Level Election Act-2017 has some flaws. It does not
specify the political representation of people with disabilities, youths, and
sexual minorities and intersex categorically whereas these group of people comprise
a considerable portion of the country’s population. These groups of people are
being deprived of political representation in the local governments. The
ambiguous and unclear provisions in the election laws which are hampering the
political representation of all should be further simplified so that all can
see everyone’s representative in the mirror of local government.