Political Parties: (Civic Awareness)

 

Unit 5: Civic Awareness

Lesson 6: Political Parties

Introduction:

A political party is a group of people to exercise political power having various political ideologies, philosophy with its own name and logo.  There is a great role of political parties in a democratic system.

Democracy is known as the rule of the people but, common people cannot rule directly so; they elect their representative of different political parties. Nepal is a country with a multiparty system. The political party having more seats in the legislature forms the government and rest parties remain as the opposition parties and work as a watchdog.

Some political parties of Nepal:

·        Nepal Communist Party (NCP)

·        Nepali Congress (NC)

·        Rastriya Janata Party Nepal (RJPN)

·        Samajbadi party, Nepal

·        Rashtriya Janamorcha

·        Rastriya Prajatantra Party

Formation and operation of political party: People who are committed to common political ideology, philosophy and program may form and operate political parties.

Registration of political party:  a political party must be registered in Election Commission and should include its constitution and manifesto along with the application. Its constitution must be democratic and there must be a provision of inclusive representation in its executive committees at various levels to reflect diversity in Nepal.

Registration for securing recognition for the purpose of contesting the election as a political party:  The party must mention the following description in the application;

a.      Name of the political party and address of it is the head office,

b.     Mane of the members of the executive committee of the political party or the name and address of same level committee and other members, and

c.     The description of income source or the source to collect the fund for the party.

Prohibition of the imposition of restrictions on political parties: The constitution of Nepal has prohibited the imposition of restrictions on political parties. It has also prohibited making any law or decision to allow for participation or involvement of only a single political party.

Role of political parties in democracy:

·        Protection and promotion of national integrity and sovereignty through public support,

·        Protection and promotion of human rights and social justice,

·        Creation of public awareness against social problems and evils,

·        Maintaining good governance.

Role of political parties in the establishment of democracy in Nepal

a.    The political parties like Praja Parishad, Nepal Congress and Nepal Communist Party played an important role in end autocratic Rana regime and introduce democracy,

b.    Even after the ban of political parties on 1^st Poush 20107 BS, political parties kept fighting for decades against the undemocratic step of the King and party-less Panchayat system,

c.     People’s  Movement II succeeded with the joint effort of seven-party alliance and CPN  (Maoist) in 2062/63 which restored people’s rights and vested sovereignty in people,

d.    Political parties participated in the election of Constituent Assembly on 28^th Chaitra 2064 BS and 4^th Mangsir, 2070 BS and became successful to promulgate the constitution of Nepal on 3^rd Aswin, 2072 BS,

e.     Establishment of republic system and implementation of federalism.