At a time when the government is pushing for municipal-level polls, a former Election Commission has asserted that holding elections doesn’t necessarily mean that there is democracy.
Addressing an interaction programme organised at the Reporters’ Club on Monday, former member at the Election Commission (EC), prof. Dr. Birendra Prasad Mishra, said elections should not be taken as an alternative to democracy. Prof. Mishra said the (proposed) elections would not have legitimacy if major political parties did not take part in it. “It would be tantamount to holding elections under a partyless polity,” he added.
In his new year message in mid-April this year—more than two months after directly taking the control of the government, His Majesty King Gyanendra had announced that royal government would hold elections for the municipalities in the country within a year.
The Election Commission has said preparations are underway to hold municipal elections as per the royal directive.
Prof. Mishra, however, said holding elections to the municipalities only would justify the Maoist claim that the government doesn’t have its presence beyond the capital and district headquarters. He even challenged the constitutionality of the present Election Commission saying that it was appointed by the King not by the Judicial Council as per the constitutional provisions, according to reports.
Addressing the interaction, a leader of the Rastriya Jana Shakti Party Sarvendra Nath Shukla said at a time when royal nominees including regional and zonal administrators were manhandling government employees including chief district officer, how can the people and parties believe that this government is going to conduct elections in a free and fair manner.