Political Random Note 8

I have a habit of reading newspaper early in the morning. Today, my attention was captured by a newspaper item mentioning that in the 12 February 2026 National Election in Bangladesh, the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) won 2/3 ( won in 209 out of 300 seats) majority in the 300 directly elected seats in the parliament. The Muslim hardline Party, the Jamat-E-Islami won 68 (they were expected to do better) and the revolting students’ Party, the Narional Citizen Party (NCP) was able to get just 6 seats. As per the constitution of Bangladesh, 50 seats are reserved for women and it is based on the proportion of votes won by different contesting parties. The toal number seats in the national parliament in Bangladesh is 350. In this election, the Awami League represented by the exiled leader, Shiekh Hasina was banned to contest.

One interesting feature of the 12 February 2026 election in Bangladesh was the national Referendum on the “July Charter 2025” related to some constitutional reforms that should be initiated in Bangladesh by the new Government.

In my random note, I am trying to express my thoughts on the “missed opportunity” in Nepal regarding the absence of a concurrent referendum ( with the 12 March election) on constitutional reforms.

“An Upraising Without a Referendum: Nepal’s GenZ Movement and the Perils of Deferring Constitutional Reform to the Ballot Box”

Nepal’s failure to hold a concurrent referendum on constitutional reforms alongside its March 2026 election represents a profound missed opportunity—one that fundamentally weakens the transformative potential of the September 2025 GenZ uprising . While Bangladesh successfully coupled its national election with a referendum that gave the July Charter a clear 67% public mandate , Nepal’s trajectory took a different, more precarious path.

The GenZ movement articulated clear constitutional demands during the September 2025 protests: comprehensive amendments to address structural flaws, a government to enhance transparency accountability, and fundamental reforms across governance sectors ( corruption free). Yet, despite the movement’s success in toppling the government and forcing an early election, these demands were never submitted to a public vote. Instead, the path to reform was deferred to the uncertain outcome of parliamentary elections scheduled for March 2026 .

This deferral, I think creates three significant risks ( but not limiting to ) that define the “missed opportunity”:

First, the absence of a public mandate means the next parliament will inherit no clear directive from the people on constitutional reform. Unlike Bangladesh’s new government, which is bound by the 67% referendum result to initiate reforms within 180 days, Nepal’s future government can claim electoral legitimacy without any specific obligation to implement the GenZ agenda .

Second, the fragmentation risk is substantial. The GenZ movement, despite its moral authority, lacks unified political representation. Without a referendum result to hold over the incoming parliament, the movement’s demands become vulnerable to the calculations of traditional parties, many of whom have been “exposed as vulnerable to popular anger” but remain reluctant to cede power to a new generation .

Third, the dilution of demands becomes nearly inevitable. The December 2025 agreement between the interim government and GenZ representatives, only commits to “provisions for electoral and constitutional reforms” rather than binding the next government to specific outcomes . As the Rastriya Prajatantra Party warned, elections under the current constitutional framework without prior reform “would be meaningless” and risk “heading down the same wrong path again” .

Bangladesh’s approach demonstrated how a concurrent referendum can lock in reform commitments before political horse-trading begins. Nepal’s sequential approach—election first, reform later—leaves the GenZ movement’s aspirations hostage to the very political establishment the uprising sought to transcend . The youth who may have learned about “what a referendum is” during their revolution may soon discover the cost of not having one.

Best regards

Pramod Shrestha
Kathmandu