Civil society members term polls 'peaceful'

KATHMANDU, NOV 20 - Civil society members on Tuesday said the second Constituent Assembly election was largely peaceful and that it was fairer compared to the 2008 polls. 

They attribute a host of factors including security deployment and the use of voter identity cards for the success. 

Despite intimidation from the CPN-Maoist-led 33-party alliance, people showed great enthusiasm to vote, at least in Kathmandu, said political commentator Devendra Raj Pandey. He added that it was now the turn of the leaders to rise to the occasion and deliver the constitution to the people, who have reposed faith in them. 

Even civil society members outside Kathmandu said the polls were largely peaceful. They expressed their satisfaction that the election was more peaceful than ever. Civil society members in Rautahat and Kapilvastu sounded positive on the “free, fair and peaceful” polls. Besides other things, they cited the changed political climate from the first CA election as a contributing factor. There was a perception that the then CPN (Maoist) in 2008 instilled fear in people to garner votes. 

“One of the remarkable things this election in Rautahat is that there was no postponement of polls. We have seen elections deferred in 2008 and even in 1999 owing to political violence,” said Bipin Gautam, the Rautahat representative of INSEC, a human rights organisation. 

Gautam recalled political violence leading to poll postponement in both 1999 and 2008 elections. “There were disturbances in Constituency-1 where CPN-UML leader Madhav Nepal was contesting and Constituency-2 where Nepali Congress leader Mohammad Aftab Alam was in the fray.” 

Last CA poll s, Gautam said, there were disturbances in Constituency-6. “The distribution of voter identity cards made voting fair,” he spoke of Tuesday's polls. 

Better security situation, voter IDs and improved political environment contributed to peaceful polls in Kapilvastu, said rights activist Ravi Thakur. “There was a good presence of security forces, which encouraged voters. This is despite the fact that there were bombs placed outside the polling stations,” said Thakur. 

In the East, civil society members said the polls were peaceful due to the security arrangement and "fearlessness in voters". 

“There was adequate security in place backed by the Nepal Army,” said Som Thapa, eastern region coordinator of INSEC. He, however, said there was mixed reaction on the use of voter ID cards. Some people had difficulty voting despite having the card as their name was missing from the voter roll; others benefited as that deterred proxy voting.