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Other Issues About the ElectionsThere are other complications about the entire system which most readers need not bother about. Some issues concern women. Even in the second, PR, election, a large number of parties is likely to reduce the number of women from the lists: because there is a greater chance of parties with an uneven number of seats from the list (1,3,5,7, etc) and if all such parties choose to have more women than men, women will suffer. There is of course another issue: women have sometimes argued that they are actually just over 50% of the population as a whole and ought to have 50% of the seats. On the other hand, since the Beijing conference in 1995 the aim has been to get 33% of women elected worldwide: the idea is that this is enough to make a real difference and break down the idea that women can't get into politics. The Election Act provisions show some indecisiveness on this point. One rather odd provision is the Backward Region one. As mentioned earlier this is defined by referring to certain districts (9 of them). What is meant by being "from" such a district is not clear. Is a person who lives in Kathmandu but was born in Jumla a Jumla person? Or must the person be living there now? And would a person whose family migrated there (e.g. a Newar) be "from Jumla"? Rather similar issues arise about "Madheshi": this is a category not used in the 2001 census. Tharus argue that they are not Madhesis, while many pahari terai residents argue that they are Madhesi. Some of the militant Mahdeshi groups take the opposite view on both points. The category "janjati" is of course very complex. Every Nepali knows that Newars, though technically janjati, are in many ways, as a group, over-represented. There is also a good chance that Gurungs would naturally be prominent when a party looks for "janjati" candidates. Also Limbus have been active, and Rais and Tharus are also likely to be represented among candidates at least. But what about all the other groups, many less than 1% of the population? It is understood that in talks between the government and janjatis, it has been agreed that the parties will make efforts to ensure that as many janjati groups as possible are represented. Different parties will identify candidates from different janjati groups. Of course there are risks: if the party who has been designated to put forward candidates from a particular jati wins very few seats in the PR election, maybe no person from that jati will get in. |
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