The Election Commission is getting ready for the 22 November elections. More than 17.6 million Nepali voters are ready. UNMIN is standing by. But the main political parties are not.

Most of the 64 parties in the fray are small and new, and they’re mostly ready for the November polls. But the main political parties are not. Except perhaps for the UML, the big parties have suddenly developed cold feet. While most of the established parties don’t have clearly-defined election manifestos, the smaller ones have specific and coherent agendas.

Some are concerned with the restructuring of state, others with bringing back the Hindu kingdom, still others are only interested in uplifting the status of women or in improving the people’s living standards. While the larger parties are vague and idealistic, smaller parties like the Nepal National Development Party has a concrete vision to make Nepal a middle-income developed country in 20 years.

Chief Election Commissioner Bhoj Raj Pokharel doesn’t find it unusual that the big political parties haven’t yet submitted their political platforms. “The election itself is a political agenda, and that is the agenda of the political parties,” he explains, “I don’t think they will allow themselves to be left behind in promoting their own agenda.”

We asked the chief whip of the NC in parliament, Ananda Prasad Dhungana, about his party’s election manifesto, he told us there isn’t any. When pressed, Dhungana muttered vaguely about the NC standing for “democracy, nationalism and socialism”. The UML already senses victory and is the most keen to have the elections over and done with. It has a platform that underlines a democratic republic and equity. UML leaders have been on the campaign trail, but even they don’t seem to be completely geared up.

The Maoists, still hungover after a bruising party plenum, have realised that whatever support they had has eroded because of the threats and high-handedness of their own cadre during the past year. The Maoists did not split during its plenum, but it put Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal on the dock for trying to weaken the party by taking the poll route.

The lack of enthusiasm among the main parties towards elections has dismayed the new players. “These old men do not have much of an agenda, what are they going to take to the people?” asks Upendra Yadav of the Madeshi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) which has registered as a party.

“The big parties aren’t ready because they know that election won’t happen,” Yadav adds, “they have been scared to death by the ethnic and regional awakening of the masses.”

Political analyst Krishna Khanal believes that fear of an uncertain outcome in the elections has petrified some party leaders and held them back from getting into serious campaigning. Such is the lack of electoral preparedness that the major political parties haven’t even handed in their manifestos to the Election Commission.

“Under the law, they have to submit their manifesto for registration," says Election Commission’s Narendra Man Shrestha, but none of the bigger parties have formally done so, and some haven’t even updated their contact addresses.

Out of 64 applicant parties, 58 have already been registered. Most of these are small, new parties which all had to procure at least 10,000 verifiable signatures.

There are several that are one-agenda parties to restore Nepal as a Hindu kingdom, like the Peace Party and Shiv Sena Nepal or turn Nepal into a Hindu republic, like the Hindu Democratic Party.

Some, like the Nepal Cooperative Party, is totally devoted to development. “Our party is a response to the monopoly of the eight parties,” says Toyanath Dahal, whose party wants to create jobs by establishing rural cooperatives. But Dahal is first to admit his party doesn’t have much of a chance and he will be satisfied if it can just be a pressure group.

But there are others who are much more ambitious. The Nepal National Development Party headed by naturalised Japanese Takashi Miyahara has a 20-year masterplan to develop Nepal based on huge investments in infrastructure.

Miyahara’s plans include an east-west railway and link highways, moving the capital to Naryangarh to ease the population pressure, three river (Koshi, Gandaki and Karnali) projects, among others. “We are here to do development, not politics,” says Miyahara firmly.

Nepali Congress
Symbol: Tree
Agenda: Democracy, nationalism, socialism, equitable development,
federal-setup, not decided on monarchy or republic

CPN-UML
Symbol: Sun
Agenda: Democratic republic, end of feudalism, non-feudalistic economy,
socialist state, egalitarian state, preservation of sovereignty of the
people

Nepali Congress-Democratic
Symbol:  Jar (kalash)
Agenda: Federal-setup, inclusive society, restructuring of the state
organs, territorial integrity, total multiparty democracy, promotion of
national and local languages. For republic (uncertain after unification
of NC).

CPN-Maoists
Symbol: Hammer and sickle within circle
Agenda: Proportional representation, People’s Republic

Small Parties
Madhesi Jaanadhikaar Forum
Symbol: Hand held torch
Agenda: Inclusive federal democratic republic, proportional
representation, mixed economy, social justice, regional autonomy,
separation of powers and end to all forms of ethnic, racial, and regional
discrimination

Hindu Democratic Party
Symbol: Woman
Agenda: Hindu republic, end to all kinds of dictatorship.

Democratic Janamukti Party
Symbol: Comb
Agenda: Proportional representation on the basis of ethnicity, ethnic
liberation

Sa-Sakti Party
Symbol: Scale
Agenda: 50 percent representation for women, cooperatives in every
village, and employment for women.

Nepal Green Party
Symbol: Mango
Agenda: Poverty alleviation, inclusive society, federal-setup,
protection of personal freedom and property

Nepal Cooperative Party
Symbol: Notebook and pen
Agenda: Cooperative in every village, employment for youths, vocational
tanning, and markets for local products, ceremonial monarchy

Nepal National Development Party
Symbol: Radio
Agenda: Elimination of unemployment through development projects,
promotion of tourism and preservation of the nature, social security,
development of education

Peace Party Nepal
Symbol: Two triangles
Agenda: Declaring Nepal a Hindu state

Naba Janabadi Morcha
Symbol: Baby
Agenda: Autonomy for madhes, federal-setup

Nepal Janbhawana Party
Symbol: Panas
Agenda: Pension for farmers, equal opportunity for all, democratic republic

Prajatantrik Shakti Party
Symbol: Clock
Agenda: Constitutional monarchy

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