Changing Face of Election Campaign in Nepal

CHANDAN KUMAR MANDAL

1. Title of the study: Changing Face of Election Campaign in Nepal

2. Introduction

Over the centuries, several civilizations and countless societies have fought starkly for their rights and freedoms. Several brutal wars have been waged that took centuries of struggle to reach where we are standing now with a number of human rights that were not possible just some decades ago. Human civilization has witnessed an atrocious past where no such rights were given to common people and the human society was ruled by 'atrocity'. One community will easily attack on others to capture their property and people as slaves. For scholars like Hobbes, human societies in the past were 'nasty and brutal'.  Overcoming all these terrible experience, now modern societies are standing firm and tall and enjoy a very pro-people system that is called 'Democracy'.

Now, the present world is given with a very liberal political system, which provides them with ample opportunities for thriving for personal prosperity, pursuit of happiness and freedom to lead an unobstructed life. In this system people can have excessive rights that one deserves being a human being and other rights which often include right to live, right to freedom of expression and opinion, right to education, right to entertainment amongst several others. By far, democracy has been widely applauded with utmost zeal around the globe for being the most ideal political climate ever existed that protects and promotes human rights and provide people with the power to rule over themselves. Democracy as a doctrine that states the numerical majority of an organized group can make decisions binding on the whole group. Likewise, democracy as the philosophy is concerned with the welfare of the maximum number of people and without discriminating any on the basis of their socio-cultural dynamics.

In ancient Athens, demokratia involved periodic meetings held by the citizens to discuss the problems of the polis and decide on a solution by voting directly on alternatives. In addition to the one-man-one vote principle, the public jury system, selection to public office according to a system of rotation introduced a practice of a direct rule that required the intensive participation of the citizen (Pruthi and Sharma 1995:71 as cited by Kharel 2012:4).

On democracy or polyarchy, scholar like Robert A. Dahl (2003) notes,

Variously called republics, democracies, representative governments, democratic republics, or parliamentary systems, these novel political systems extended the theory and practice of popular government far beyond the narrow boundaries of the city-state to the much larger domain of the country or national political system. We call today's more inclusive version of these systems polyarchies.

Brian A. McNair  (2011) writes, "Democracy presumes ‘an open state in which people are allowed to participate in decision-making, and are given access to the media, and other information networks through which advocacy occurs’. It also presumes, as we have stated, an audience sufficiently educated and knowledgeable to make rational and effective use of the information circulating in the public sphere."

Democracy share varied meaning and aspirations to different scholars and in different political environment. Sometimes even the most autocratic rulers term their rule of system as the democratic one. Benito Mussolini, Adolph Hitler, Saddam Husain and Muammar Mohammad Gaddafi all have their own versions of democracy. So, what makes a democracy acceptable and in line with the real notion of democracies.

To make it precise, Dahl (2003) has pointed some fundamental characteristics of democracy and notes:

1.      Control over final decision about government policy is vested in elected officials;

2.      Elected officials are chosen and peacefully removed in frequent, fair, and free elections in which force and coercion are absent or quite limited;

3.      Virtually all adults have the right to vote;

4.      Most adults also have the right to run for public offices in these elections;

5.      Citizens possess a right, effectively enforced by government officials, to freedom of expression, including criticism of and opposition  to the leaders or party holding top government offices;

6.      They have access, and an effectively enforced right to gain access, to source of information that are not monopolized by the government of the state, or by any other single group; and

7.      They possess an effectively enforced right to form and join political organization, including political parties and interest groups.  

Kharel (2012) writes, "Democracy means freedom of expression, free elections, universal suffrage and a duly elected body of popular representatives that controls government. The focus of many a democracy seems to be on election only, frequently reducing it only to the act of voting. As a result, ruling groups become short on delivery and long on rhetoric, clinging to only singular practice of regular elections at various levels. Democracy is more than a process of ballot. It is expected to herald the birth of liberty and put an end to inequality. This means good governance in letter and spirit."

Above all, as noted by Kharel, the most prominent characteristic of democracy is the practice of free and fair election. Election offers an opportunity for common citizens to choose the rule of the law of the country under which they agree to be ruled. Election is equal to the power that the democracy bestows on citizens which they can use for transaction of political system they wish. It provides them with the exceptional chance to select their leader and government as well as show their support and agreement to particular agendas that would take them and the country on the road of prosperity. During election, candidates or political leaders try to persuade voters for endorsing their agendas, whereas common people manifest their power of selection or rejection of a particular political party or candidate. However, the practice of timely election doesn't suffice the foundation of strong democracy, free and fair election does.

Dev Raj Dahal (2001) writes:

A free and fair election brings the micro-institutions of governance closer to the people. People as stakeholders of democracy are subject to the authority of elected leadership and, therefore, can claim to share direct control over them. Law, administration and punishment pale into insignificance if civic education of citizens, their awareness about fundamental rights and duties and participation that set the context for fair elections go amiss. Certain principles, such as freedom of speech, organization, press and the secret ballot, might be considered essential at universal level, but the details of the electoral process must incorporate native reality. Each country has its own mechanism of elections reflecting the functional requirement of that nation-state and people.

Global Election Campaigning Trend  

Over the years, our modern democracies have gone through overwhelming changes. How politics is done these days is completely different than that of some centuries ago. The time has long gone when autocratic rulers or influential individual would govern the society for decades. Paternalistic system of ruling is almost obsolete these days. Countries are hardly ruled by a clan where one family used to govern over common people just being born in a particular family and were revered as kings and queens. People are sovereign and they have the power to decide how they want to be governed and which laws they want to obey. Election – a democratic mechanism – is employed to perform this purpose.

Now, election is not just a periodical democratic process meant to strengthen democratic norms and values and selecting a group of leaders to rule for next five years. Election has become more complicated, commercial, glamorous and as a manifestation of power by political parties. Election is beyond voters casting out their votes and electing their favorite leader.  Political parties use very sophisticated strategies, policies and years of planning to win the election.  They leave no stone unturned to be in power through election. A group of strategist, public relation enhancer team, spin-doctors, sometimes also media channels is hired to win the elections. Election can be termed as the biggest 'Game of Thrones' of modern democracy.

Political parties spend huge amount of money on election campaigning and activities related to like pseudo-events, mass gathering, pamphlets, posters and political advertisements.

On the increasing use of political advertising and expenses of election campaigning in USA,

Darren G. Lilleker (2006) observes:

Political advertising, in one form or another, has been a feature of campaigning ever since groups began competing over public support. However, the first television advertisement is usually seen as Eisenhower’s 1952 ‘I like Ike’, which featured endorsements from the average American. Since then the use of advertising, particularly in the US, has spiralled from campaign to campaign. The scale of increase in use and sophistication is evidenced on how much is spent. When in 1970, political advertising was first identified as a separate category $12 million was spent on it in the US, in 2002 it was close to $700 million – the greater use in the 2004 presidential election campaign may well see a further increase.

2. Objectives of the study

This study aims to fulfill the following objectives in particular;

·         To outline the ongoing practice of election campaigning in Nepal;

·         To find out the positive and negative sides of election campaigning practice in Nepal;

·         To critically examine the ongoing election campaigning trend; and

·         To suggest recommendations for the promotion of democratic election campaigning in the country.

3.  Methodology

This study which is completely analytical in its nature has been conducted based on these three major methods of data collection.

1.      Secondary Data Collection: Large amount of information appeared in printed documents like newspapers, reports, monitoring reports, studies, journals, books and other media were consulted during this study.

2.      Observation: This researcher has also gathered and used some of the information in this study that was the result of the researcher's original observation of election campaigning in his own constituency.

4. Limitation of the study

Like every other studies, this study also come up with some limitations. This study has been carried out completely based on the information discovered by other researchers and scholars or secondary sources of information, which has been one of the many limitations of this study. Similarly, this study is more focused on the election campaign of the latest Constituent Assembly Election held in November 2013, which is another limitation of this study. 

5. Data Presentation, Analysis and Discussion

Nepal, the country which has been mostly ruled by monarchs and other autocratic regimes has not a long history of election. There was no way for conducting election during 104 years long autocratic Rana oligarchy and prior to that. Arrival of democracy and fall down of century-long Rana regime opened the way for the first election in the country. However, it took another eight years till 2015 BS when country could vote in its first General Election. Since then, country has observed several general elections and local body election like first multiparty election in 1990 till the latest CA Election held in November, 2013.

At present, as Himal South Asia Magazine (2015) writes, "Nepal has a unicameral Constituent Assembly (Sambidhan Sabha) that consists of 601 members, 240 of whom are elected through a direct, constituency-based FPTP contests, and 335 are elected through party list-based PR system. The remaining 26 members are nominated by the interim cabinet on a consensual basis. The Constituent Assembly (CA) has provisions in which women must make up at least half of the PR list. Overall, 33 percent of all the candidate for the CA must be women. Other PR quotas include 31.2 percent for Madhesis, 37.8 percent for the Janajatis (indigenous groups), 13 percent for Dalits, 4 percent for inhabitants of underdeveloped regions and 30.2 percent for others not mentioned elsewhere in the list. "

In the last decade, after the end of decade-long armed conflict, Nepali citizens have seen two back-to-back elections in the span of five years. First CA Election was held in 2008, followed by the next one in 2013. Undoubtedly, election campaigning has changed over the time due to several factors. Nepali election campaigning has also gone overwhelming transformation that has been observed in some areas and discussed here.

Elections getting more 'Expensive'

Everything else is getting more expensive day by day. Living expenses, transportation fare, health services, educational fees have increased excessively in past few years. So, election campaigns cannot stay unaffected. Political parties and leaders have been spending generously in their constituent areas. It is reported through various media that election candidates have been spending millions on various topics. During elections, candidates spend huge amount of money on printing of publicity materials like banners, pamphlets, calendars, posters, organizing feast to cadres and other sycophants. They pay heavily for transportation used for carrying their cadres and youths during rallies.

Republica (2013) reported that, "The election code of conduct had allowed each candidate contesting under the proportional representation (PR) electoral system to spend a maximum Rs 75,000, while a candidate under first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system could spend a maximum of Rs 1 million for election campaigning. "

With disregard to election code of conduct, several leaders were heard of spending in tens of millions and crossing the limitation set by Election Commission (EC). Some of them also hire helicopters during election campaign, which was earlier allowed by EC to be used only in Solukhumbhu, Manang, Mustang, Dolpa, Humla, Jumla, Mugu, Kalikot, Bajhang, Bajura and Jajarkot districts, but later it allowed senior central leaders of political parties to use helicopters elsewhere. Use of helicopters and several vehicles during election campaign, spending on cadres, publicity materials, advertisements and organizing events have added the financial burden on election candidates heavily.

Shrinking voluntary public participation

Though the recent CA Election 2013 witnessed the record voter turnout, it seems that people are not anymore interested in participating election campaign as in the past. There used to be days when people would enthusiastically and voluntarily take part in every development of election campaigns since very beginning. The excitement about election on people's part seemed to be lacking in recent election. Such election campaign or rallies were not attended by huge number of people like in the past. The lacking number of attendants could be attributed to some factors like Nepali youth living abroad, people uninterested in political parties' agendas and activities. These days such crowds need to be gathered by political parties after showing some kinds of lures or often consist only party cadre. When the political party wants to organize a bike rally, they have to provide petrol to the participants and as well as refreshment, if not, the rally would not be possible. In this researcher's experience, when a rally was organized in his constituency, one of the candidates had arranged lunch and beverage for the participants.    

Rampant violation of election code of conduct

The violation of Code of Conduct endorsed by EC has been like never before during the 2nd CA Election in 2013. Election Commission had enforced the election code of conduct 120 days before the voting day. The poll code of conduct was applicable to political parties, their candidates, the government and its various bodies, civil servants, poll volunteers, NGOs and media, among others.

As reported by Republica based on the information provided by EC, a total of 364 complaints related to violation of the code of conduct were filed at the commission, and it took action on 321 cases. It said," Despite the efforts made by the commission to discourage political parties and candidates from breaching the election code of conduct, rampant violations were reported during the election campaigning across the country."

Several other independent organizations were also actively involved in monitoring of the CA Election. The Citizen's Campaign for Clean Election (CCCE) had monitored the election through all 75 district representatives, five regional offices and the partner organizations of the Campaign. The monitoring had begun on October 28, 2013 and concluded on November 21.

As documented by CCCE, there were 912 incidents of violation of Code of Conduct. Of which most of them, 349 were related to point no. 30 of the Code of Conduct that, "no party should be disrupting the rally, procession, assembly, meeting or gathering organized by other parties or candidates".

Likewise, there were 135 incidents documented related to point no. 29, "prohibition on carrying weapons or sharp weapons or demonstrating and or using chemical or poisonous elements or bladed and risky weapons like baton, spears and khukuri". A total of 59 incidents were violation of Code of Conduct point no. 12 of "prohibition on wall painting, use or making others use of banner and hangings.

CCCE further states, "52 incidents of breach of Code of Conduct related to point no. 35 prohibiting assembly, using megaphone and other election campaign activities in the school or school premises. Likewise, there were 45 breaches of Code of Conduct point no. 20 prohibiting

tampering, damaging or destroying voter education materials, 41 incidents of violation of Code of Conduct point no. 48 prohibiting any act depriving the voters from casting their ballots, 38

violations of Code of Conduct point no. 10 prohibiting pasting of pamphlets on the religious, ancient or historical buildings, memorials or government or public or educational buildings or walls. A total of 37 incidents were of violations of Code of Conduct point no. 32 prohibiting participation of children in any election activity, including rally, procession, assembly, meeting or gathering."

In terms of violation of Code of Conduct instances in development regions, The Campaign recorded highest number of violation of Code of Conduct in the Eastern Region. Region-wise, there were 268 violations in the Eastern Region, 226 in the Mid Region, 139 in Western Region, 212 in the Mid-Western Region and 67 in Far-Western Region.

  

There were also 32 cases of violation of Code of Conduct relating point no. 15 prohibiting damage of the candidate's publicity materials and 26 incidents were related to Code of Conduct point no. 21 prohibiting parties to influence the voters by cash or kind or feasting and 15 incidents related to point no. 39 prohibiting use of only two light vehicles at most for election campaign.

EC had spelled out that the Code of Conduct would be effective for non-contesting political parties as well. But, it was not only those political parties that boycotted the election, but also contesting parties also violated the Code of Conduct on several occasions. The monitoring report writes, "The CA Election Code of Conduct, drafted by the political parties for contesting the election, was violated by the parties themselves. A total of 26 parties, including CPN-M which boycotted the election and other contesting parties were found involved in 760 incidents of violation of Code of Conduct. UCPN-M was named as violator in 223 incidents, NC in 128, UML in 76, MJF-D and RPP in 13 each, RPP Nepal in 12, FSP in 11 and MJF-N in 10 incidents.

Of the 223 incidents of violation of Code of Conduct by the UCPN-M, 94 were related to point no. 30. NC violated point no. 30 in 41 incidents while UML was involved in violation of same point in 24 cases."

There were news reports of incidents of violation of code of conducts by top leaders as well. In eastern district of Ilam, a complaint was lodged against CPN-UML candidates Jhalanath Khanal and Subash Chandra Nembang for flouting the election code of conduct during the 24-hours silent period at the District Election Commission Office on Monday. They were accused of sending a bulk of Mobile SMSs to lure voters to cast votes in his favor and spending huge amount of money to lure voters.  

Media-mongering managed media coverage

The media had immense role to play during the CA Election 2013. It was expected to report on election activities and promote free and fair elections. Pratyush Nath Upreti (2013) writes, "Since the last CA election in 2008, both print and visual media have grown rapidly. The role they play in the election process is all the more important but the media needs to be politically independent and highly professional in its role." Undoubtedly, Nepali media provided an unprecedented coverage of CA Elections. Every other election activities were covered by Nepali media. Candidates were interviewed, discussion programs were held, opinions formed, news reported and media performed its role as watchdog. However, election candidates were seen manipulating media for maximum coverage and using their personal contact for media platform so that they can generate positive image for them and their agendas and allure voters. It was largely seen possible due to the ever-increasing number of local FM radio stations and local newspapers, often suffering from financial crisis, which gave candidates a chance to make best of their condition. Covertly, many media houses get paid for sponsoring interviews of the candidate and reporting about even trivial activities of any political party and candidate during election campaign. Even some mainstream media were seen favoring particular candidate and party in their contents.  Clarification sought from ABC Television channel is one of many example of poor media performance. So, buying media time and media manipulation was another drawback of election campaigning in Nepal observed during the latest election.     

Poor political marketing

Nepali political parties are still unaware of using political marketing strategy which was manifested during this election. Political marketing as a philosophy of marketing is designed to influence consumers about political issues, particularly candidates for public office, or public issues.  Political marketing is actually used to promote a concept or an idea, rather than a specific product or service, and to motivate people to vote for that idea. Vaidya (2013) observes, "Political marketing is a powerful instrument in election campaigns and policy making. But many things are still not learned and avoided by the political marketers in Nepal. Politics is the struggle for power, and the general people are the source of power generation. Political marketing targets the transfer and promotion of a concept or an idea, rather than a specific product or service, while motivating people to vote for that idea." He further argues that "Entering the political market and existing there need certain differentiation in the products. But a Nepalese political party lacks that differentiation characteristic in their marketing campaign. Political parties in Nepal are different in their brand name only. If we were to go through their manifestoes and their objectives, they are similar to each other. This has created more chaos among the people in selecting parties and their ideas. Parties should try to create differentiation rather than try to be more competitive in the same set of ideas." As pointed out by Vaidya, Nepali leaders have not been smart enough in utilizing the benefits of political advertising that could have popularized their agendas. They are still relying on old tactics of election campaigning and thus none of these parties have garnered their own unique brand.

Same old tactics

Nepali political parties are still relying heavily on the very old tactics or traditional activities of election campaigning pertaining to late 19th and early 20th centuries. They are basically selling 'old wines in new bottles.'  Their election campaign activities include mass gathering, mass meeting, paying visit to voters' house, painting walls and littering the city and villages with their posters. They have not really come up with anything new that would attract voters to listen and discuss about their political agendas. However, there were some impressive tactics used by some political parties. UCPN-Maoist's Mechi Mahakali Yatra was one of them, though they couldn't win the election. Similarly, 'Ek Vote Dai lai: Ek Vote Gai lai' also fetched unprecedented success to Kamal Thapa and conformist Rastriya Prajatantra Party – Nepal. Similarly, several television advertisements and other media materials were carefully designed during this election.  

Social media and other media material

The US Presidential election of 2008 has shown the world how useful social media can be even in winning elections. Keeping this view in mind, the political parties and their candidates had tried to take help of available social media platform so that they could update themselves about the election activities and made it easier for their supporters and cadres. These social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter provided them with the opportunity to reach their voters and cadres simultaneously and faster than ever. Many of these candidates had opened FB pages where they would post their daily activities and parties decisions and upcoming activities. They could not only share their view through text and pictures, but also could directly interact with their voters and candidate and share their concerns as well. The UCPN (Maoist) had officially announced that it will use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and blogs for its election campaign. So, this election saw a massive use of social networking sites by political parties and candidate during election campaign, which is innovative and praiseworthy.

6.  Conclusion

Globally, the trend of election campaigning is changing drastically. In similar manner, election campaigning of Nepali political parties is trying their best to keep up with global trend. The recent trend seen election campaign of the country has shown that things have changed from that of last decade. Elections are contested differently these days. Our election campaign has not been up to the mark with international democracies but the situation has changed here as well. Our political parties are trying their best to outplay their competitors through strategic planning and execution.   

On many occasions, political parties are still adopting old tactics of household visit, mass address, alluring voters through deception and fake promises, trying to buy votes and other cunning way-out to win the minds and hearts of voters and ultimately winning the election. They are spending excessively even going against the Code of Conduct and there have been abundance of incidents of violations of Code of Conduct, which are not acceptable in the country ruled by democratic norms and values. These ill-practices are more likely to weaken the democratic norms rather than promoting democratic culture in the country and will promote atrocity. Winning election practicing adapting unconstitutional means and due to the power of hostility and cadres cannot bring fruitful result for upcoming days and will manifest negative image of democratic society and election in the eyes of coming generations.  

7. Recommendations

Based on this study, following recommendations have been suggested;

·         Political parties should be more transparent in their spending during election campaigns;

·         Government should strictly fix and monitor the expenditure of political parties;

·         Political parties should try to influence people to voluntarily participate in their campaigns rather than forcing or alluring them to join;

·         Use of children during election campaign should be barred;

·         Political party cadre involved in spreading violent activities should be punished;

·         Parties should not sell false promises and deceive voters;

·         Government bodies and other stakeholders should promote voter's educations;

·         Political parties should creatively use political advertisement and other publicity materials;

·         Parties should strictly abide by the Code of Conduct;

·         EC and concerned bodies should penalize the violators'

·         Media should be alert enough so that they can fall prey at the hand of candidates;

·         Media should strictly abide by EC Code of Conduct for Media;

·          Awareness program on clean election should be taken to grass-root level in coordination with media;

·         Concerned stakeholders should actively monitor the election process so that similar ill-practice will not continue in future.

References:

·         Bhattarai, Benup. 2013. "Complaints lodged against UML candidates Khanal, Nembang." Republica. November 18, 2013. Retrieved from  http://myrepublica.com/portal/index.php/?action=news_details&news_id=64776 on August 15, 2015.

·         Citizen's Campaign for Clean Election. 2013. Constituent Assembly Election 2013: Monitoring Report. Kathmandu: Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC).

·         Dahal, D. R. 2001. Electoral System and Election Management in Nepal. Nepal Office: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. 

·         Dahl, R.  A. and Bruce, S. 2003. Modern Political Analysis. Sixth Edition.  Delhi: Pearson Education.

·         Election Commission Nepal. 2015. http://election.gov.np/.

·         Himal South Asian. 2014. "Electoral systems in Southasia." Himal South Asian. Septemeber, 2014.

·         Kharel, P. 2012. Media for Participatory Democracy. Kathmandu: Kamla Kharel.

·         Lilleker, D. G. 2006. Key Concepts in Political Communication. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

·         McNair, B. 2011. An Introduction to Political Communication (5th Edition). USA: Routledge. 

·         Republica. 2013. " EC lifts election code of conduct." Republica. November 26, 2013. Retrieved from www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=65150 on August 15, 2015.

·         The Rising Nepal. 2013. "CA And The Social Media:BG." The Rising Nepal. November. Retrieved from http://trn.gorkhapatraonline.com/index.php/op-ed/5479-ca-and-the-social-media-bg.html on August 15, 2015.

·         Upreti, P.N. 2013. "Play by the rules." The Kathmandu Post. November 3, 2013. Retrieved from http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2013/11/02/free-the-words/play-by-the-rules/255371.html  on August 14, 2015.

·         Vaidya, B. 2013. "Political Marketing And Unlearned Facts By Parties." The Rising Nepal. Retrieved from http://trn.gorkhapatraonline.com/index.php/op-ed/5481-political-marketing-and-unlearned-facts-by-parties-birendra-vaidya.html on August 14, 2015.