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US Ambassador to Nepal Randy W. Berry said that the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) will help modernize Nepal’s energy and transportation sectors, assisting more than 23 million Nepalis.

The government of Nepal ratified the MCC agreement in February this year.

In a statement issued to mark the 75th year of diplomatic relations between the United States and Nepal on Friday, Ambassador Berry said that throughout these 75 years – and through the decades of change that have occurred in both of our countries – the United States and Nepal have stood with one another.

Americans know Nepalis as the people who make laudable advances in medicine and science, reach nearly impossible heights as mountaineers, honorably and bravely serve as UN peacekeepers, and enrich the world’s heritage through a vast diversity of arts and culture.

The United States’ historic support for Nepal’s health sector reflects the powerful results of our partnership. In the 1950s, malaria afflicted nearly 25 percent of the population. The US government through USAID, supported the Malaria Control Program and by 1968, malaria cases dropped from more than 2 million to 2,468 cases nationwide, the statement further read.

In the last two years since the beginning of the pandemic, the United States has donated nearly 3.8 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Nepal to date, and given over $124.8 million in COVID assistance.

“The foundation of this multi-generational US– Nepal relationship is people-to-people connections, sovereignty, and democratic values. Today, we need each other more than ever to tackle difficult issues like addressing the climate crisis and protecting democracy in the face of rising authoritarianism. We look forward to doing this together, giving us the results that this friendship has given us for generations,” Ambassador Berry said in the statement.

Over 17m potential voters. A touch above 137,000 candidates. More than 35,000 positions up for grabs. The May 17 local elections will be a gargantuan undertaking any way you look at it.  

The ruling alliance of Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Center), CPN (Unified Socialist), and Janta Samajwadi Party have nominated common candidates in most local bodies.

The main opposition, CPN-UML, has also stitched alliances with small parties like Loktantrik Samajwadi Party and Rastriya Prajatantra Party in some places, even though it is contesting major mayoral and municipal seats on its own.

There are also many promising independent youth candidates this time. Rapper and structural engineer Balen Shah, for instance, is running for mayor of Kathmandu. Ganesh Paudel, another independent, has filed candidacy for mayor of Pokhara. “Such youth candidates give local elections a breath of fresh air,” says civil society leader Shyam Shrestha.

Some provincial lawmakers are also in the mayor and chairperson race. Provincial lawmakers resigning to contest posts at the rural municipality level shows “how important the third tier of federalism has become,” says Shrestha. This, again, is “something to be celebrated”.  

But Shrestha is troubled by the ‘coalition culture’. So is Krishna Pokharal, a political scientist. “Even though there are plenty of independent candidates in the fray this time, electoral alliances have greatly reduced the options for the voting public,” he argues.   

Yet Pokharel still expects many new faces to emerge from the May 13 polls. In the previous local-level by-elections in 2019, people had thrown out many incumbents. “If they could so harshly evaluate their representatives in such a short time, I am expecting an even closer scrutiny this time.”

One thing is for sure: we are in for plenty of nail-biters. 

Also read: The May 13 vote at a glance

The ruling coalition has decided to immediately scrap the alliances forged with other parties.

A meeting chaired by Prime Minister and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba on Friday also decided to immediately withdraw the candidacies registered from the ruling coalition against the agreement.

“The alliance has decided to immediately withdraw the nominations filed from the ruling coalition against the agreement in the mayoral and deputy mayoral posts of six metropolitan cities and 11 sub-metropolitan cities,” read a statement issued after the meeting.

The meeting has also decided that the concerned parties will immediately take action against the rebel candidates if they refused to withdraw from electoral race.

The Election Commission (EC) has decided to write to all local levels through the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration seeking approval for use of the physical infrastructures and their premises from May 11-13 for the voting purpose during the time of the local level elections.

The physical infrastructures include public schools, ward offices, health posts and others.

At a news conference on Thursday, the EC said it had decided to write to the federal government through the Chief Secretary to make arrangements for teaching students in an alternative way as the schools with voting centres and polling stations there should be used for three days from May 11-13 for running voting and election-related managerial tasks.

Issuing a statement, Surya Prasad Aryal, spokesperson at the Election Commission, said that the Chief Secretary would write a letter to the government seeking a nationwide public holiday on May 13 on the day of the local level elections.

Likewise, the EC said a total of 153,002 candidates had filed their nominations in different posts in the local level elections as per the data entry made till 3:30 pm Thursday.

It is said 3,510 nominations were received for mayor, 3,387 for chairperson, 2,168 for deputy mayor and 2,401 for vice-chair.

Likewise, 35,353 nominations were filed for the post of ward chair.

Till Thursday, the EC said more than 17.77 million ballot papers for 72 districts have been printed and 5.18 million ballot papers for 33 districts have been transported.