After holding a meeting with election commissioners, leaders of major political parties unanimously expressed their view that it is impossible to hold the election on November 23 in the existing political scenario.


The leaders of three major political parties Prachanda of UCPN-Maoist, Jhalnath Khanal of CPN-UML, and Ram Chandra Poudel of Nepali Congress drew the conclusion that the election is impossible as scheduled for November.


The meeting between EC officials and top leaders of major political parties ended inconclusively  as the leaders remained divided over the extension of the deadline set by the EC to remove legal and constitutional hurdles to facilitate the conduct of the new elections.


Earlier, the EC had set third week of July for amending the electoral regulations and the interim constitution, saying it needs at least 120 days to prepare for the Constituent Assembly polls declared by the caretaker government.


This is neither surprising nor new in Nepal’s context. In 60 years of  democratic experiments, Nepal has seen fewer than 15 years under elected and unaccountable governments. Nepal’s history is such that there have been more nominated governments than elected and accountable ones.

After the overthrow of the Rana regime in 1951, Nepal waited till 1959 for the elections. The first popularly elected government was dismissed just after its one and a half years in power. Nepal was under a one party system for another thirty years with periodic elections for local bodies and national assembly.


After the political change of 1990, there was drastic change in the political process with constitutional monarchy and multi-party democracy with periodic elections. From 1990 to 2001, Nepal experienced absolutely a free experiment of multi-party democracy.


But in five years of the experiment, Nepal’s multi-party pluralistic system came under the violent attack of Maoist. Despite this, it lasted another five years and finally the  parliament was dissolved with the recommendation of prime minister in 2002.


After dismissal of the government by the king in 2002, the country came under the direct rule of the king till 2006. King Gyanendra reinstated the parliament. After 2006, the country came under the joint rule of seven parties and Maoist alliance till holding the elections for CA in 2008. With the demise of the Constituent Assembly in 2012, Nepal is again under the rule of non-elected government.


Although prime minister and other parties knew that elections will be impossible following the demise of the Constituent Assembly on May 27, they were not in a position to prevent the demise of CA.


In the history of modern Nepal, Nepalese have been ruled by popularly elected governments less often than by non-elected government. Given the present political scenario, it is unlikely any new elected government will be there any time soon.