UML's poll success good for Belt & Road
- By Ritu Raj Subedi
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E-mail China.org.cn, July 19, 2017
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Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist [File photo] |
Extending its winning streak, the main opposition Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) gained the largest number of seats in local level units in the second phase of elections held in three provinces on June 28.
The UML landslide overwhelmed the ruling Nepali Congress and CPN-Maoist Centre in several strategic cities as voter retribution against the ruling alliance for a series of gratuitous acts domestically and in regard to foreign relations.
Combining the results of both election phases, the UML secured around 45 percent of seats and the posts of mayors, deputy mayors, and chief and deputy heads of village councils. The NC and the CPN-Maoist Centre recorded vote tallies of 36 percent and 13.64 percent respectively.
One striking feature was that the UML emerged victorious in the heartland of Terai, the plains region bordering India, that some Madhesi parties claimed as their fiefdom.
Despite the ruling and Madhesi parties demonizing the UML as an anti-Madhesi force, local Madhesi people elected UML in their place for its efforts to meet their demands for better development of the Terai.
The NC and Maoist Centre were widely viewed as having succumbed to Indian geopolitical interests. When the Nepalese people began suffering by the Indian economic blockade launched in 2015, the NC simply refused to describe it as such, to the utter bewilderment of many. The Maoist Centre entered an unholy alliance with the NC as part of a New Delhi plan to topple the K.P. Sharma Oli-led government.
The disastrous poll performance has triggered an existential crisis to the CPN-Maoist Centre that had become the largest party from the first Constituent Assembly election in 2008. MC functionaries are sinking into a slough of despond after their nemesis, the UML, swept them aside in numerous cities and villages despite its attempts to isolate the resurgent opposition through poll alliances with major and minor parties.
There is general consensus that UML's advance is due to the nationalistic stand it took in the wake of cruel Indian blockade imposed on Nepal when it was struggling to cope with a devastating earthquake and the complex promulgation of a new constitution.
Even ruling parties' stalwarts admit this. NC leader Manamohan Bhattarai told a local television channel: "We must acknowledge the UML has shown the Nepalese people a vision of the country's future by defeating the Indian embargo and opening a route to China via Kerung of Tibet. Likewise, the people did not want to split Terai from the hill regions. The NC tried to separate them, but the UML clocked it. This is a reason behind the victory of UML."
Bhattarai also agreed that the nationalism and the safeguarding of national interests that UML promoted touched the hearts of the people living in not only the Terai but also the hills and mountains, and this was well reflected at the ballot box.
Former prime minister and UML chairman Oli had taken a bold step by entering a historic trade and transit treaty with China. The landmark deal liberated Nepal from its landlocked geographic condition by providing Nepal with access to the sea via Chinese territory. The accord finally led the Himalayan nation to be the part of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global flagship development project of China.
It was historic in the sense that no past ruler - whether autocratic king or elected prime ministers - would have dared to sign such a document for fear of an Indian response.
India imposed two embargos during the party-less Panchayat system, but the reigning monarchs recoiled at the thought of reaching any trade and transit agreement even though considered to be good friends of China.
The groundbreaking agreement elevated Oli's stature to new heights and the people handed a resounding victory to the UML for this reason. Now, the Chinese leadership should take this development as a positive development and promote BRI projects in Nepal without any hesitation.
The electoral endorsement of BRI has given impetus to implementing the various economic programs and plans under it, clearing the way for advancement hindered by any political, bureaucratic and procedural pretext.
Ritu Raj Subedi is an associate editor of The Rising Nepal.
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
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