editA consistent but permeable factor hindering the elections scheduled this Sunday is the virtual absence of public trust in the politics of our country. One thing is for sure though. Despite the public meanderings our political class must make sure that the electoral democracy they espouse must be sealed and signed by the public through the vote. The end result is that we go to the polls in the hills virtually dividing the country between where the elections are possible for the moment keeping for the next round elections in the Tarai where negotiations remain uncertain. Very fundaments of electoral principles which are designed not to effect the vote have already been violated in the decision that the results are to be announced after the conclusion of the first round belie the sense of urgency and desperation in politics that the implementation of the constitution is already in process the first round having been concluded. This fast track approach will perhaps apply to the coming round as well since, just as the closure of the House in order to make the first round possible indicates, continuing negotiations for the coming round will conclude equally urgently to make it possible despite the trails of undecided material pending. Indeed, Sunday’s polls take place with the legislature still discussing fundaments of the electoral process which have had to remain pending because the House only sits for discussions after the polls. It is this inconclusiveness that belies the urgency in our politicians to stamp the electoral seal on the constitution. Moreover, it is precisely the misuse or overuse of their monopoly over exclusive organized public orchestration that defeats their avowed electoral purpose. Over forty nine thousand candidates have chosen to contest exclusively hill constituencies this round ensuring the election hype has meat. But this election fervor is tempered by the public skepticism regarding the process. It is transparent that the legislature has been closed abruptly and the excuse has not been the elections but the manufactured constitutional tensions regarding relations between the executive, the legislature and, this round, the judiciary as well. While the constitutional stalemate that forced the house to close down, ostensibly for the elections, for deliberations to avoid a constitutional crunch is itself self defeating, the elections must never the less take place. Just as two rounds of constituent assembly elections made it convenient for our political monopoly to have the assembly rubber stamp its approval of the constitution, the participation of the electorate this election round will make it convenient for this monopoly to site that the implementation of the constitution is already underway. This fundamental purpose of the elections digresses from the actual meaning of participatory democracy in the sense that it has already wrought in actuality the geographical division of the country in its electoral form leaving the constitution to still more vulnerability the essence of which has only been postponed. The dice, nevertheless, keeps rolling.