KATHMANDU: I am a student and campaigner for the voting rights of the Nepalis who have been supporting the national economy by working day and night abroad.
We have been running a discerning Nepalis campaign known as Bibeksheel Abhiyan and questioning how is it that the bank notes of the Nepali workers abroad sustain the country’s economy but the vote of such people is not counted as valid. When we say the vote is not counted valid, we mean why are they deprived of their voting rights?
I want to talk about our campaign and the need to give voting rights to Nepalis living abroad.
We have been running the Bibeksheel Abhiyan as the main campaign for about 7 years now. We call Nepal a country of remittances. But the remittance makers’ suffrage is not secure. You have not been able to cast your vote yet. That is why we have been continuing this campaign.
We carried out various campaigns, and various activities and collected about 10,000 signatures online and also submitted them to the concerned authorities. Along with this campaign, the Supreme Court issued a directive order on March 21, 2018, to grant voting rights to Nepali citizens living abroad.
Depriving 2.3 million Nepali citizens of their right to vote is undemocratic. What’s more, many citizens within Nepal have been deprived of voting due to various reasons.
Then, we were hopeful that something substantive happens. But when went to follow up on the progress made as per the SC verdict, we found nothing done for implementation. We also visited the Election Commission and various ministries many times. Government ministries ask us to inquire at EC, and EC officials ask us to go to the government. Later, we also exercised our right to information.
While requesting information through the right to information, EC said that a report has been prepared, but it did not provide us with the report. I applied to EC twice for the report prepared in June 2019, but despite seeking details based on the Right to Information, I was provided nothing.
This is my right. We are all Nepali citizens. I had complained to the National Information Commission that everyone should know about it. The first time I didn’t get it, then the second time, and now only I got this report.
Interestingly, it took us about 6 months to get the information. The report was prepared. But not much has been done in the last three or four years. We are advancing this issue through this Bibeksheel campaign.
Hopefully, some work will move forward. Be it at the civil society level or the political parties or the academic field, the issue has to be taken forward to the conclusion. I think the pressure is on.
We have been working to raise awareness about this by giving various pressures both online and offline.
Recently, they contacted us from trade unions such as the Trade Union Federation, Nepal, and the National Network for Safer Immigration.
Shortly before the local elections, the Trade Union launched a campaign to get workers to vote from their workplaces. They knocked on the doors of political parties for facilitation and found that no mainstream political party took it as an issue.
This is a campaign that has been going on for 7 years. Similarly, Kshitij Lohani, a resident of Texas, USA, has recently filed a case in the Supreme Court seeking contempt of court action.
The campaign has generated public awareness. Many feel that this is a ‘must-take ahead’ issue. The authorities have not done what they were supposed to do. Even though we, the Nepal Bibeksheel Party, are a political party, we have raised the issue continuously.
We believe in participatory democracy. In the census of 2021, more than 2.3 million Nepalis are excluded. The Election Commission report says 4 million. Informal reports show the number to be 6 to 7 million.
Depriving 2.3 million Nepali citizens of their right to vote is undemocratic. What’s more, many citizens within Nepal have been deprived of voting due to various reasons.
Hopefully, some work will move forward. Be it at the civil society level or the political parties or the academic field, the issue has to be taken forward to the conclusion. I think the pressure is on.
I personally hope that if we can force EC or other bodies to think through our research and campaigns, a little bit of work will go ahead.
It is my wish that no Nepali should be deprived of the right to vote. Let us mount pressure from where we live to ensure our right to vote.
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