Local level elections: 'Women must come forward'

The Election Commission is working from the District Election Offices of all the 77 districts under its jurisdiction for the mobilization of necessary staff for the election, appointment of election officials and procurement of materials.

Like the commission, the parties have also intensified their organizations, gatherings and meetings. With the election approaching, activity has increased in Baglung. Discussions and comments of potential candidates have started.

Men's names are in the forefront when it comes to candidates. Discussions have started in Baglung, where there were zero women leaders in the previous election, this time too. However, the political parties have not yet decided on the candidates. Even though the parties have not made the list of final candidates public, activists have started campaigning.

Some have started the discussion with the intention of continuing with the previous candidates, while others have started the discussion with the intention of giving a chance to the new and experienced ones. Though the discussions and conclusions of the discussions were the same among all the parties, there was diversity in subject matter, gender and personality. Out of 10 local levels of the district, only six women have become deputy chiefs. Although there is a legal provision that one of the chief and deputy chiefs should be a woman, in the name of coordination and alliance, the parties have created an environment for men to come into both the posts by fielding different candidates of the two parties to circumvent the law. As a result, there are four local level chiefs and deputy chiefs.

Even in this election, women's names are rarely heard in the list of possible candidates. It does not seem that the name women has become a topic of discussion for the main post. While selecting the leadership from the conventions of the active parties held a few months ago, no woman had been given the responsibility of being the head of the municipality from any of the parties. 

The women leaders of the major parties who are active here have started debates and discussions. However, there is no reason to believe that the candidates of the parties that are ignoring the debates and discussions they have started are women. In terms of inclusion, the presence of Dalits and indigenous people was seen in Baglung earlier. Dev Kumar Nepali, who became the mayor from the Dalit community, and Baglung, which is dominated by the Magar community, had won the election by the candidates from 11 indigenous communities.

In the previous election in the district, women candidates had won in only two out of 85 wards. Women have started giving speeches in public ceremonies saying that women can also lead if given the opportunity. "What we are doing is enough to get leadership," said Dil Kumari Pun, vice-chairperson of Tarakhola village. "Now, women must come forward to lead."