On our election day, I wanted to write about my experience witnessing Nepal’s first general/local election after the long civil war. The civil war was in some part a fight to hold local elections for all citizens.
In the days leading up the election, various political parties (at the time there were 57!) would go through all the villages waving party flags and shaking hands. My village had a very bad drought, so some (more prosperous) parties brought water bottles in exchange for people’s votes. One time, I saw USAID water bottles being distributed by a party, which was… interesting. One candidate wanted me to take a picture holding his party’s flag, and when I refused, he became quite angry. So I did what I do best, and pretended I had no idea what he was saying and just bumbled around speaking English until he left.
Tension rose on the days before the election – there were several bombs that were set off through the country. My village was pretty far removed from the violence, luckily, but Nepal is also famous for it’s strikes by political parties. These strikes are seemingly called at random, and the political party that called the strike stop vehicles and schools. They are in some ways a remnant of the civil war, when violating the strike would result in death, and now they are much less violent but still respected (and occur so, so often). School was very intermittent for a few weeks before because there were all these strikes going on.
The day of the election, however, was incredibly peaceful. My village’s voting took place at the school, a site of great violence during the civil war. Families picnicked on the lawn outside, and in true Nepali fashion, there was a huge vat of food that was being boiled over a fire.
After a brutal, decade-long civil war, Nepal did it. People were able to cast votes for the first time ever. There was a joy and hope in the air as people picnicked and celebrated. While there is vast corruption and people who are left out of a vote, for the first local election ever, it was a peaceful day around the country.
There were 3 more elections while I was there, and they were all just as special.
Related Posts
