BY THE BY

CA poll or Godot?

 

By Prateebha Tuladhar

 

On my 18th birthday, my 12-year sister Loonibha gave me a card scribbled in her broken English, “Dear Sister, now you can give vote.” Of course, I laughed at the card then! I found it hilarious that she should think of ‘voting’, of all things, to mention on a birthday card (although I now think it intelligent). I added the card to my greetings archive.Ironically, a decade has passed since I received that birthday card, and I still haven’t cast my ballot. And I’m certain it is something I have in common with several other people of my generation. Unfortunately, in 1999, when the third general election since the restoration of democracy was held, I wasn’t in Nepal to exercise suffrage. The only time I might have voted but didn’t, was the municipal elections held by the royal government on February 8, 2006. The election saw a record low turnout of 20% voters compared to former elections. The municipal election was termed “a farce” as it was boycotted by political parties.

The announcement of the CA election in 2006, after the formation of an alliance by the eight major parties, ushered in new hope for the likes of me. It felt like a chance was finally coming along to participate in the country’s policy making through the ballot. But with the postponement of election twice, a feeling of bitterness has begun to creep in due to the continuing political limbo and the deferral of the whole process.

Casting the ballot seems like an interesting process to me. To stamp the crisp ballot paper in favor of whom you support, and folding it neatly (I am imagining it!) before dropping it into the ballot box, with a soft thud. I think with nostalgia about the indigo mark the elders carried on their thumbs when they returned home after voting in the elections after the post people’s movement – 1990. The sense of pride they flaunted in casting the ballot was almost enviable.

I haven’t forgotten how prior to the elections, houses in the neighborhood warmed up in colorful flags, carrying all kinds of symbols, which were Greek to me at that time. What faith they had in the parties and their candidates! The walls untidily covered with pamphlets, boasting of candidates and parties seemed to condense the size of the city, only with a promise of heralding something new. The sense of excitement I felt as a school-kid staring at the posters from my school-bus as it raced me through the streets of Kathmandu is just reminiscence. But even that memory is tinged with the brightest hope for change, which the nation seemed thick with then.

The announcement of the CA poll had filled us Nepalis with renewed hope, which dispelled the frustration experienced during the period of insurgency. It offered us something like a comic interlude in a tragedy. But with the continued deferral of polls, the frustration is beginning to return. The anxiety of waiting for a new election is more or less like waiting for a friend who never comes. It is like waiting for Godot.

 

 

Posted on: 2008-02-11 20:53:17 (Server Time)

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