The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact that had stirred the whole country just a couple of month back is not even an agenda for the local election to be held on Friday.
The MCC Compact was ratified by the House of Representatives (HoR) on February 27 along with a 12-point interpretative declaration that declared that the Constitution of Nepal would prevail over the Compact and other associated agreements.
The ruling coalition looked set to unravel over endorsing the MCC Compact with Prime Minister (PM) and Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba bent on ratifying it even at the cost of coalition by forging a new coalition with the main opposition party CPN-UML after CPN (Maoist Center) and CPN (Unified Socialist) vehemently opposed MCC and Rastriya Janamorcha even left the five-party coalition over the issue.
UML also tried to break the ruling coalition over the issue ahead of the impending local elections by reportedly assuring Deuba that the party will help MCC ratification even if Maoist Center and Unified Socialist did not support ratification should Deuba decide to break the ruling coalition.
The coalition ultimately agreed to ratify the US$ 500 million grant project attaching the 12-point interpretative declaration to dispel rumors that the MCC Compact is above the Constitution and is part of the military strategy of America.
The parties especially the communist ones in the ruling coalition feared that the issue of MCC may cost them dear in the election.
But interaction with over 1,000 voters in Dharan, Itahari, Biratnagar, Birgunj, Bharatpur, Pokhara, Kathmandu, Butwal and Dhangadi ahead of the local election by Setopati found that the issue of MCC is not the main election agenda for any of the voters.
When asked about the issue of major concern for them, almost all the respondents listed lack of development at their respective places, high tax rate, lack of drinking water, rising corruption, slow public service delivery and other issues.
Only 10 respondents in Bharatpur and Pokhara raised the issue of MCC. “It was a treason to pass MCC. I don’t feel like voting for anyone this time. I feel like voting for RPP even if I decide to vote,” said Mukti Bahadur Naharki from Bharatpur-2.
Naharki, who has recently migrated to Chitwan from Gorkha, is a former Maoist cadre and revealed that his two siblings (a brother and a sister) were killed during the Maoist rebellion.
We asked all the respondents in Dharan, Itahari and Biratnagar about their opinion on MCC after they did not list MCC as an issue of major concern. A large majority of the respondents replied that they don’t even know about MCC. Some said they had heard about rumors related to MCC but are not aware about the details.
A significant portion of the respondents replied that ratification of MCC was not good for the country but none of them said that they will not vote for any party over the issue of MCC. Some said that ratification of MCC was good for the country even though they do not know about MCC.
