News Analysis: Strike in Nepal likely to reduce turnout in CA election

English.news.cn

KATHMANDU, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- The transport strike called by the CPN-Maoist is likely to reduce the voter turnout in the Nepal' s Constituent Assembly (CA) election scheduled on Nov. 19, political analysts said here Thursday.

Due to the strike called by the CPN-Maoist-led anti-election alliance, the lack of public transportation in the long-route could affect the movement of people to and from the urban centers, especially for students and workers. This could result in lesser turnout of voters in the coming political exercise.

"I am planning to vote in my village but if there is no transportation, how can I cast my vote?" said Ramesh Kharel, a student at Tribhuwan University, the country's largest university. Like Kharel, there are thousands of other people who will be deprived of their right to vote if the transportation strike continues.

Besides calling for a transport strike, the CPN-Maoist-led 33- party alliance has also threatened people not to vote during the election.

The pre-election violence that has spread across the country has already created a sense of terror and insecurity among the cadres.

Definitely people will not go to polling stations where CPN- Maoist has strong influence. As bombs and explosive materials are being recovered from different places people fear to travel ahead of election time.

In 2008 election, there were 17.61 million voters. Of this number, 10.87 million exercised their right of suffrage. The turnout was 63.29 percent. In this election, only 12.4 million voters have registered. As per the Population Census 2011, there are 15.4 million Nepalese of voting age.

"This time a large number of the population has opted not to vote as parties have already failed to draft a new constitution," CPN-Maoist Chairman Mohan Baidya told a group of journalists on Wednesday at his residence.

The larger motive behind the attempt by CPN-Maoist in reducing voter turnout is to make the election's legitimacy questionable after the voting, one analyst said.

But he said the legitimacy of the election can be questioned only if the voter turnout is below 50 percent of the registered voters.

Another factor that is likely to affect the voter turnout is the distribution of voter identity cards. Although the Election Commission has started distributing voter's identity cards, it is difficult for them to transmit the cards to remote areas in the country.

There is also confusion on whether the voter's ID card is necessary before a voter is allowed to vote. It has not properly communicated if the citizenship certificate can be used in lieu of the voter's ID card.

In the first parliamentary election in 1991, voter turnout in Nepal was 65.15 percent; in 1994 the percentage decreased to 61.86; in 1999 the voter turnout was 65.79. In the 2008 Constituent Assembly (CA) election the percentage was 63.29.

A political analyst said in comparison with other countries, Nepal has been doing well in voter turnouts, but this time the percentage will decrease. After the establishment of a democracy in 1991, this is probably the first time where a major political force has opted not to participate in an election.