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Political Parties Campaigning Sans Poll Manifesto

  3 min 57 sec to read

--By Sagar Ghimire
 
With the Constituent Assembly (CA) poll just a month away, most of the political parties have intensified poll campaigning for the polls without their election manifestos.
 
So far, UCPN (Maoist), Rajendra Mahato-led Sadbhavana Party (SP), Kamal Thapa-led Rastriya Prajatantra Party- Nepal (RPP-Nepal), and a few other fringe parties, only have unveiled their election manifesto. RPP-Nepal was the first political party to come up publicly with its election manifesto on October 8 while the major parties like  Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML are yet to make their manifesto public until this scribe went to press on Sunday. 
 
Though the manifesto has already been endorsed by the CPN (UML) Standing Committee meeting on October 15, it has not been made public yet.
 
The manifesto drafting committee (MDC) of the NC has already finalised the draft, the MDC has circulated the draft to the leaders of the party for a final call. According to NC sources, the party will make its manifesto public only after a couple of days.
 
“Directly elected prez, PM from parliament”
The UCPN (Maoist) has proposed a directly elected presidential system and Prime Minister elected from the parliament to run the daily administration as the form of governance and 11-province model for the state restructuring. 11 autonomous provinces have been proposed based on ethnicity, language, identity, economic interrelations, infrastructure development, availability of natural resources and administrative accessibility. The 11 provinces include Seti-Mahakali, Bheri-Karnali, Magarat, Tamuwan, Tamsaling, Newa, Kirant, Limbuwan, Tharuwan, Madhesh and Kochila. Likewise, in its manifesto, the party has claimed to uplift the country’s economic status to high level as well as ending poverty within 15 years. Unveiling its manifesto in capital last Saturday, UCPN (Maoist) chairperson Pushpa Kamal Dahal has pledged to implement the manifesto in a ‘true sense’.
 
SP bats two provinces in Madhes
Amid demands of ‘one Madhes, one province’ by the Madhes-based parties, SP has proposed two provinces in Madhes. SP has proposed that the whole Madhes be divided into two provinces— East and West of Narayani. Chairman of the SP, Rajendra Mahato, made the manifesto public organizing a press conference in the capital last Friday and said his party was for 10 states as proposed by State Restructuring Committee of the erstwhile CA. The party also proposed constitutional presidential system elected from both the houses of bicameral legislation and Prime Minister as the executive chief. 
 
RPP-Nepal for reinstatement of monarchy 
RPP-Nepal has reiterated its stand of reinstatement of constitutional monarchy, directly elected prime minister and liberal economic system. The party has also proposed its Chairman Kamal Thapa as its prime ministerial candidate for the elections. In its election manifesto made public on October 15, it has claimed that the roadmap of a republican set-up with federalism has become a complete failure. The party has proposed mixed election system.
 
The RPP-N manifesto has proposed directly elected prime minister as executive head and calls for not making the same person the prime minister twice. The party has expressed its commitment that it will never organise general strikes. 
 
EU poll observers at field
Meanwhile, 34-member European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) led by Chief Observer Eva Joly, a member of the European Parliament, have been deployed across the country as long term observers.
 
The observers arrived in the country on October 13 to observe the Constituent Assembly election scheduled for November 19.The EU office here briefed the observers about the process and methods of election observations for three days before assigning them on duty. 
 
According to Chief Observer Joly, shortly before the election, a group of 40 short-term observers together with a delegation of members of the European Parliament and locally-recruited short term observers from EU member state embassies will be joining the mission in order to observe voting, counting and tabulation of results. 
 
The EU election observers are bound by a strict code of conduct that ensures their neutrality and impartibility. They do not interfere in the electoral process and have no authority to change or correct any shortcomings or to request changes during the election process.

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