Countdown to the IMC election
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: April 25 2011 -

A FRESH election is going to be held to form a new Imphal Municipal Council. The date has been fixed on May 25, 2011. Political parties of different hues, sizes and calibre have started baring their fangs in posturing themselves for the coming electoral fray.

There is also a wind in the air wafting of fun, food, revelry and broken promises. A sense of deja vu has seeped into the minds of the people and there is that propelling factor compelling people to play their part in this rigmarole.

There is that old familiar spring in the steps of politicians promising the moon. One's mind conjures of the image of a gaudy woman offering propositions. It's the best of times and the worst of times.

Why the need for an election of a new IMC? Opinion is divided on the line whether the government took a legal and morally good decision to shut down an elected body or not.

If the same action had been enforced, for the same reasons expostulated, on the incumbent state government by the Union Government there would have erupted shrieks of indignant fury. Come what may, the electorate will soon have to vote again.

Who wins or loses, may not be the real issue. What matters is that it is most likely that the common man will again have to endure the vile taste of ill and poor governance.

But what are the platforms the contesting political parties are going to step on to harangue the public? A moot question one could probably say. And yet, the debate will hinge on the performance and non-performance of the government in power.

On one hand, the government will catalogue its achievements hoping it will have convinced the electorate of its positive actions, taken albeit with fingers crossed.

On the other hand, the opposition with fingers even more tightly crossed, will be posturing as having been successful in exposing the government's corrupt practices. The common man meanwhile rightfully snorts and waits to displease those who have not answered to their calls. Election time, is the time to make and break promises.

And yet, apart from the perfunctory posturing of the political parties what really are the issues the political parties should be presenting to the people, or if they will not do so, what is the electorate going to ponder upon before exercising their franchise.

One could well say it will have to be corruption, nepotism and more corruption. But corruption and nepotism are no longer hush words in the average Manipuri's lexicon. They are always a scary factor but with times they have become inane and banal.

Cut short, they should be the biggest issue and yet will cut no ice. However money power can and will play an important part in the election to the IMC, along with the style of electioneering and the personalities of the candidates. These will be the influential factors.

Come what may by May 25 the voters in the municipal wards in Imphal will have decided the fate of 27 municipal councillors. Until then it will be a battle of money and flags.