With non-resident Nepalis (NRN) demanding voting rights in the proposed election of the constituent assembly (CA), and various debates ongoing in the country, a opinion poll survey has said that seventy percent respondents expressed the view that Nepalese living in other countries should get a chance to vote at the CA election.
The survey conducted by the Nepal International Electoral Forum (NIEFO) was conducted in 31 municipalities covering major towns such as Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Pokhara, Biratnagar, Nepalgunj, Palpa, Dipayal etc from 20 May – 6 June 2006.
A press statement issued by the NIFEO said six different groups were chosen for a wider representation of all sections of the Nepalese society. The six target groups were – political groups, professional groups (engineers, doctors, teachers etc.), students, farmers, ethnic groups and illiterate groups.
Talking to Nepalnews, vice president of NIFEO, Subhadayak Shah said that the foremost thing is that the government should make a political decision on whether to allow Nepalis living abroad to vote in the election of the constituent assembly, a historic process of forming a new Nepal.
He further said that the task of out-country voting is not a difficult task if the government makes a political decision as the International Organisation of Migration (IOM), which has expertise in out-country voting has expressed its willingness to assist Nepal in its historical moment of making a new Nepal.
According to him, the IOM will conduct the out-country voting if the government asks it to do so.
He informed that the out-country voting will be conducted by placing ballot boxes in the different areas in the countries like India, South Korea and some gulf countries, where the number of Nepalis living is high and by placing the ballot boxes in the embassies in rest of the countries.
Talking on the cost of the out-country voting, he said, though the process is costly, the IOM will find donors for funding so the country need not pay any money for the process, adding, “The government needs to do three things in this regard, one is making political decision to incorporate Nepali staying outside the country, second is to approach the IOM to conduct the out-country voting and the third is to make bi-lateral agreements with foreign governments for providing security to the ballot boxes.”
The process is not complicated so the government should decide to incorporate more than three million Nepalis abroad in the historic process by granting them voting rights, Shah added.
Meanwhile, the survey further said that seventy one percent of the respondents among the illiterate groups said that they are not aware about the CA election. Majority of the ethnic groups, 64%, also said that they are not aware about the CA election.
“Technical understanding about CA election also follows the same pattern. Thirty one percent farmers, 32 percent ethnic groups and 46 percent illiterate groups are ignorant about the technical aspects of the CA election. They don’t know the differences between this election and past elections held in Nepal,” the press release states.
The opinion poll survey said that majority of the respondents, 60%, have expected peace from the Constituent Assembly elections, followed by 31% who expects full democracy from the CA election.
Majority of the respondents, 63%, have said that the reinstalled House of Representatives will be supportive to the CA elections. More than 42% respondents said that there should be new voters registration.
For free and fair election, 46% respondents said that the Maoist party has to be disarmed under the supervision of the United Nations before the election.