US embassy cable - 02KATHMANDU1387

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KATHMANDU 001387 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
LONDON FOR POL/RIEDEL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, ASEC, PTER, PREL, PINR, NP, Government of Nepal (GON) 
SUBJECT: Nepal's Local Officials Stay Home as PM Allows 
Terms to Lapse 
 
 
1. (SBU) Summary.  Nepal's government allowed the terms of 
local-level elected officials to lapse on July 16, a move 
affecting around 200,000 village-, municipality- and 
district-level politicians.  Civil servants reportedly 
will be tasked with performing their functions.  The terms 
expired after local elections slated for this spring were 
postponed for security reasons and the Election Commission 
disallowed the ruling party from appointing its cadres to 
the offices.  The main opposition party, which controls a 
majority of the local bodies, blasted the move as a 
politically motivated tactic to ensure ruling party 
success in the upcoming national elections.  Observers 
believe that in many areas the local bodies were already 
barely functioning due to security problems and central 
government neglect.  The move sends mixed signals and will 
make it difficult to implement some grassroots development 
programs.  The action is legal under Nepal's Constitution. 
End Summary. 
 
Local Officials' Terms Allowed to Lapse 
--------------------------------------- 
 
2. (SBU) Nepal's government declined to extend the terms 
of locally-elected officials, all of which expired at 
midnight July 16.  These include office holders in Nepal's 
75 District Development Committees (DDCs), 58 
municipalities and 3913 Village Development Committees 
(VDCs).  According to the National Election Commission, 
altogether 189,134 elected officials were affected; the 
Ministry of Local Development put the number at over 
223,000.  [Note:  The bulk of these serve at the VDC 
level.  Each VDC elects a total of 47 individuals, 
including a VDC Chairman and Vice-Chairman.  VDCs are 
divided into nine wards, each of which elects a Ward 
Chairman plus four members.  End Note.]  Local elections, 
slated for earlier this year, were postponed due to 
security problems related to the ongoing Maoist 
insurgency.  By law, the elections can be postponed for 
only one year and thus must be held no later than July, 
2003. 
 
Ruling Party Stopped from Appointing New Local Leaders 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
3. (SBU) The Prime Minister Deuba-led interim government 
had wanted to appoint its own candidates to serve during a 
one-year extension of local-body tenures, but backed off 
after the National Election Commission indicated that it 
would disapprove such a move.  Donors have not been 
pleased with the PM's decision to let the local bodies 
lapse; the British development agency expressed "concern," 
while the World Bank's Kathmandu office sent a letter to 
the Prime Minister asking him to consider not suspending 
the bodies. 
 
Government Confident:  Can Still Deliver Goods 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
4. (SBU) Ministry of Local Development Joint Secretary 
Ganga Datta Wawasti told us on July 17 that although the 
tenures of local officials had ended and could not be 
reinstated, the government had not yet designed specific 
mechanisms for doing the work performed by local bodies. 
These duties include registering births and deaths, 
collecting taxes, and providing letters needed to acquire 
citizenship certificates and other official documents from 
the central government.  Wawasti was confident that the 
bureaucracy could perform these functions, however. 
 
This Year Clear, Planning for Next Year a Problem 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
5. (SBU) The coming year's budgets and programs have 
already been approved for most jurisdictions, he added, 
and their implementation would not cause a problem.  The 
crunch would come when the time came to formulate budgets 
and programs for the following year.  This planning 
process would present "a big problem," said Wawasti. 
[Note:  The major role of VDCs is to administer village- 
level development activities.  End Note.] 
 
No Steps Yet to Combine Elections 
--------------------------------- 
 
6. (SBU) Wawasti admitted the possibility that local 
elections could be held concurrently with national 
elections, which are planned not later than November 13, 
but added that the government was not yet considering that 
option.  To stage a combined election would require many 
more resources, Wawasti continued.  For example, three 
ballots would be needed--one each for for ward, VDC (or 
municipality) and Parliamentary representatives--and many 
more polling places would be required.  Moreover, the 
accounting system used in local elections is significantly 
different from that used in national polls.  All things 
considered, however, a combined election likely would be 
more economical provided that security problems did not 
inflate the budget, Wawasti concluded. 
Current Regulations Sufficient 
------------------------------ 
 
7. (SBU) Wawasti dismissed as erroneous press reports that 
the government plans to issue an ordinance allowing 
bureaucrats to perform all the duties of the elected 
officials they are to stand in for.  Refuting claims that 
some powers wielded by local officials cannot be 
transferred without a new law, Wawasti said that existing 
law gave the government authority to decide on alternative 
local administrative mechanisms and implement them through 
regulations. 
 
Opposition Party Angered By Move 
-------------------------------- 
 
8. (SBU) The decision to dissolve the local bodies was 
politically motivated, complained the main opposition 
party, the Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist 
Leninist (CPN-UML).  [Note:  CPN-UML controls a majority 
of the local-level bodies, including about 2300 VDCs, 44 
municipalities and 51 DDCs.  End Note.]  Jhala Nath 
Khanal, head of the CPN-UML's international relations 
department, told us that his party was "very unhappy" with 
the move.  Khanal claimed that both the Prime Minister and 
Home Minister had told him that because the last local 
elections had been held during the tenure of CPN-UML 
leader Bamdev Gautam as Home Minister, local bodies were 
being dismantled in advance of this year's national 
election.  The Election Commission's Code of Conduct was 
the only thing that prevented the ruling Nepali Congress 
Party (NCP) from putting its local cadres in control of 
these jurisdictions, Khanal alleged. 
 
9. (SBU) According to the constitution and relevant laws, 
Khanal said, the government could extend the terms of 
local officials for up to one year.  It could also call 
new local elections to fill the positions.  To do either 
would have been acceptable to the CPN-UML.  Dueba's 
decision to disband these bodies will create many problems 
of local governance, Khanal believes, and will also likely 
work against the PM in the long run.  Deuba should now be 
consolidating his power, but instead he has opened doors 
that will allow his opponents to gain ground. 
 
Local Bodies Were Already On the Ropes 
-------------------------------------- 
 
10. (SBU) That the political left dominated most local 
bodies was the prime reason behind the government 
decision, the editor of Nepal's official English-language 
daily told us.  The editor was reserving judgement on the 
move, noting that in some areas local bodies had already 
ceased functioning due to the deteriorating security 
situation.  He planned to wait for a few days to see how 
civil servants performed in their new roles. 
 
11. (SBU) Other contacts confirmed that local bodies were 
already barely functioning.  One journalist who travels 
frequently to remote areas noted that central government 
representatives have already deserted many of the places 
he visited.  Without the locally-elected representatives, 
there will be no government at all, he stated.  Another 
embassy contact noted that nearly three-fourths of VDCs 
were already without Secretaries, the civil-service 
officials who are assigned to work with VDCs and who have 
been tapped to fill the roles of elected VDC Chairman.  In 
most areas the VDC Secretaries left their posts long ago 
due either to fear or to conflicts with local people; in 
others, the posts were simply never filled. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
12. (SBU) While constitutional, the government's decision 
to dissolve local bodies sends mixed signals.  Efforts to 
nudge Nepal toward a more decentralized government-led 
effort to address the root causes of the violent Maoist 
insurgency have begun to make headway.  But an already 
over-stretched, under-financed bureaucracy--struggling to 
overcome traditional corruption and inertia--will find it 
hard to move on key development and governance initiatives 
in a rural Nepal with which it has only a passing, distant 
familiarity and no institutional links.  Much will depend 
on how long the central government allows the local 
positions to lie vacant before holding local elections. 
 
MALINOWSKI