Nepal parties gear up for third phase of local elections

Nepal’s major political parties are gearing up for the third phase of the local-level polls to be held in the Madhesi province next month after it was postponed by the government, local media reported. The third phase of the local polls held in two decades is scheduled to take place in eight districts including in Bara, Parsa, Rautahat, Dhanusha, Saptari and Siraha of southern Nepal under the Madhesi-stronghold provinceNo. 2 on September 18. Three major political parties Nepali Congress, CPN- UML and CPN (Maoist Centre) have focused their activities on Province 2 in view of the third phase of local level elections scheduled for September 18, deploying top leaders to prepare the ground for the election. The Madhes-based political parties have also started their electoral preparation in various districts of the province No. 2 ahead of the third phase of local polls. However, the newly-formed Rastriya Janata Party Nepal has not yet decided whether to take part in the polls or not as the party has stuck to its earlier demand of an amendment to the constitution to address their major demands. Millions of Nepalis voted on June 28 in the second phase of the country’s first local-level polls in two decades as the Himalayan nation took a crucial step towards cementing democracy amid political turmoil. In the first round of polls held on May 14 in Provinces 3, 4 and 6, voter turnout was recorded at 71%. Earlier, the Nepal government had postponed the date of elections in the disputed Madhesi-stronghold Province No. 2 by nearly three months and added a third phase in the polls.Local-level elections could not be held after 1997 largely as a result of the decade-long Maoist insurgency that claimed more than 16,000 lives in Nepal. Nepal has been witnessing political instability. Some Madhes-centric parties opposed the elections on the ground that the new constitution be amended to accommodate their views: more representation in the parliament and redrawing of provincial boundaries. The Nepal government has tabled a new constitution amendment bill in the parliament to address the demands of the agitating Madhesis.