Chief Minister Pandey said that an environment of trust should be created between the current federal government and political parties.
What you should know
Gandaki Province Chief Minister Surendra Raj Pandey has said that if the elections cannot be held on the announced date, it could pose a challenge to the very existence of the country.
Addressing a provincial-level security seminar held in Pokhara on Monday, he stressed that the election should be held by this government on the same date as announced.
‘If the election is postponed once or if a prime minister is changed, there is no way to say where this country will fall into political instability again,’ he said. ‘If that cannot be done, political instability will increase further. Not only security challenges, but challenges may be added to the country itself, to the very existence of the country.’
He said that the current situation is not the same as in previous elections. On the one hand, the morale of the security forces has fallen, the people are not able to have full confidence in the security forces, and some armed and criminals are walking out of jail, which have added to the security challenge.
‘These are security challenges, which may add a bigger challenge to holding the election like in the past,’ he said. Chief Minister Pandey said that an environment of trust should be created between the current federal government and political parties. He said that the question has been raised whether the current government is trying to move forward by ‘bypassing’ political parties.
He reminded that out of the 761 governments envisaged by the Constitution of Nepal, not a single government is currently led by a political party. ‘Due to the compulsion of the situation, there is currently an unelected government, a government formed for the election, and the remaining 760 governments are led by political parties,’ he said, ‘How does the relationship between the federal government, provincial government, and local levels move forward in an interdependent manner? How is coordination achieved? How is a trusting environment created?’
He said that only by creating a trusting environment between political parties and the government can the election and security challenges be faced collectively.
Chief Minister Pandey said that the situation and political situation in the country have changed after the incidents of 23 and 24 Bhadra. He said that the mindset of the people has also changed and challenges have been added to the security agencies. "After the protest on the 23rd and the destruction in the name of the protest on the 24th, the morale of the security forces has also dropped somewhat," he added. "Is it because the security forces are still unable to bring themselves into the mainstream or is there a situation where they are mentally saying, 'This is a situation where people are saying, 'I am not sure,'"
He said that the public's trust in the security forces has also decreased from what it was before Bhadra 24. He said that the question has also been raised as to whether destruction is being encouraged in the name of the protest.
