Project Take Over Tundikhel: Draft 1

1. Set up a PayPal account and display a Make A Donation button at the Alliance homepage.
   
2. Have a first stage goal of getting 250 Life Members who pay in $125 each. That is $31,250. That is seed money with which to seek $100,000 and above from the National Endowment For Democracy and/or do more fund raising the Alliance way itself. How about getting 1000 Life Members! 2000?
   
3. Keep all book keeping transparent and online in near real time.
   
4. The proposal is that all expenses to do with a decisive protest movement in Nepal will be funded from this end.
   
5. The idea is to take over Tundikhel in Kathmandu as a first step on a 24/7 basis. The second step would be to replicate the same in all 58 municipalities. The protests end only with the establishment of an interim government with the sole responsibility to hold elections to a Constituent Assembly.
6. The protest organizations in smaller towns might not be 7 deep. They might only be 6 deep. Or 5 deep. To be decided locally. The Tundikhel version itself might start out 6 deep and that would be just fine.
   
7. Possible expenses could be as follows.
8. Three meals a day for all Leaders cooked right there on the grounds. Simple, basic, cheap, clean, healthy. Leaders are those doing minimum 12 hour shifts and having teams minimum 7 strong each at any one time of the day, and having replacements for themselves for those 12 hours or less when they are not on the premises. Volunteers are members of such teams doing 4 hour shifts or less but always having a substitute for when they are not around, or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 in succession. The leader of 7 such Leaders is a Senior Leader, and eats and sleeps at the premises. On premise tent lodging for all Senior Leaders and above. Makeshift mobile toilet facilities on the grounds. Plentiful supply of drinking water. Parked tankers on the premises or nearby. 7 Senior Leaders report to a Field Commander. 7 Field Commanders report to a Commander. All Commanders have on site tent offices, small ones, perhaps shared. 7 Commanders report to a Marshall. 7 Marshalls report to a Central Committee Member.
   
9. Pyramid of 7. Open elections are held bottom up through consensus. No votes cast.
   
10. 7 Volunteers * 7 Leaders * 7 Senior Leaders * 7 Field Commanders * 7 Commanders * 7 Marshalls * 7 Central Committee Members = 8,23,543. The central committee is presided over by a different member each day.
    
11. 8,23,543 people converge onto Tundikhel at once. So the structure will have to be built beforehand. The takeover should not last more than two weeks if done well and if a resolution is reached within that time frame, it might be a possible to go into a Constituent Assembly that guarantees a ceremonial monarchy. But we should be ready to hold for two months. If it goes into two months, a place for the monarchy is an open question for the Constituent Assembly. If it has to last longer than two months, the movement turns into a revolution. It spills over from Tundikhel into the streets. At that point there is no more room for the monarchy in any shape or form. The Constituent Assembly only decides on the shape and form of a republican democracy.
12. If the movement has to spillover into a revolution, the central committee unilaterally announces an interim government and seeks its recognition from all foreign powers as the only legitimate government in the country and starts issuing orders to the state apparatus, the police and the army included, as soon as the recognition is forthcoming from the key powers. Ambassadors are replaced as a first step.
    
13. Other expenses. About 50 on site digital cameras uploading at least 100 photos each per day. Taking at least 2 pictures during any one hour period during daytime and 1 per hour at night time when awake. At least 2 of the leaders at any one level must be awake at any one point in time. So there will be those who sleep during day time and stay awake at night. From midnight to six in the morning is the no activity time. Each camera equipped with two memory cards, such that only memory cards leave the premises for uploading purposes. Marshalls and above have a camera each. They also have a prepaid mobile phone each. Some online options for photo hosting, by no means exclusive: Yahoo, Flickr, Blogger. To be individually decided, but linked to from one central site.
    
14. Activities will have to be staged on premises to keep people involved in creative ways. Like skits, songs and dances. Speeches. Small group political meetings. Small group trainings. Press conferences.
    
15. A tent exclusively for use by the media people.
    
16. This is draft 1. I seek feedback.
    
17. The Alliance transfers money to the Central Committee. That committee takes care of all expenses on the ground. And furnishes book keeping in a transparent way in near real time online.
18. The central committee decides on the date and time when the takeover starts and springs a surprise if possible.
    
19. The safety of peaceful demonstrators - and all protests are to be kept non-violent at all times - is top priority. Law enforcements agencies are to be warned. Making sure there is no violence is one thing. But if peaceful demonstrators are to be subjected to brutal and retaliatory acts, the interim government will investigate and punish all such acts. All such acts are to be documented as they might happen.
20. The central committee is to come up with a cheaper, bare bones version of the above as a backup plan.

eDemocracy, 4S Campaign, 24/7 Vigil For Democracy: Take Over Tundikhel (March 19)

Janata Dal Constitution

(This is a proposed constitution for a proposed new political party for Nepal that is envisioned to operate withing the broad democratic parameters described here: Proposed Constitution, Reorganized UN, Methods.)

Preamble

The underlying concept is of a total, transparent democracy.

Article 1: Membership

1. Any voter in Nepal can become a voting member of the party. Dues are Rs. 5 every four months or Rs. 12 a year if paid at once. A member must also have attended at least one party meeting authorized by the wada chairperson or above every four months. Such meetings must have been announced at least a month in advance, or longer. Such are voting members.
   
2. All such members elect the 5 members of their wada committee. Beyond that it is indirect elections. Any member from the wada may be a contestant. A list is to be prepared of the aspiring contestants in alphabetical order. The top five vote getters get in. There must be at least five contestants. If there are no more slots than contestants, no elections are held.
   
3. One of the five is the wada chair, elected at the same time.
   
4. All members of wada committees and above are known as Active Members of the party. All active members of the party vote to decide on the party's candidate for parliamentary elections.
5. There are to be secret ballot elections. Before the ballot is printed, all aspiring names must get together to meet in person for at least one hour to get to know each other and exchange views and attempt a possible consensus list.
   
6. No member may be expelled from the party except through a 60% vote by the committee he or she might be part of. All such decisions may be taken to the Appeals Committee directly above or at the same level - at the district, state, and central levels - by the expelled member for the final, binding decision.
   

Article 2: Party Structure

1. There will be a party committee to reflect each level of the state apparatus, 5 for the wada level, 7 for the village level, 9 for the town level, 11 for the city level, 17 for the district level, 21 for the state level, and 31 for the central level.
   
2. If a member of a committee get elected to one at a higher level, that person loses membership of the earlier committee. The vacant seat goes to the next person down the list when elections were held.
   
3. Elections at any one level must be completed nationwide before the one at the next level may be held except when it might not impact that next level elections.
   
4. All wada committee members are voting members and possible contestants of the village/town/city committees. All village/town/city committee members are voting members and possible contestants of the district committees.
   
5. All parliamentary seat candidates in the last held elections in a state are voting members and possible contestants for the state committee.
   
6. All parliamentary seat candidates in the last held elections at the national level are voting members and possible contestants for the central committee.
7. The committees expire every four years. It is for the Election Commission to decide precisely when. But the period may not be less than three years.
   
8. Only the party's Election Commission may spend any money on the elections inside the party. Candidates are barred from doing so. The commission will educate all voters on the candidates' bio and political platforms, authored by the candidates themselves, giving roughly equal space to each. The commission may design additional elements to the campaigns.
   

Article 3: Party President

1. Elections for the party presidency are to be held by the national Election Commission. Until that happens, the party Election Commission fulfills that role.
   
2. Members of the three state committees, and all popularly elected officials at the state and national levels vote for party president. When there might be an overlap, one person may not be counted as two votes. Only a voter may be a contestant. If there be more than two candidates, a second round of voting should take place between the two finalists. This is also true for distributing party tickets for inter-party elections that invite direct voter participation.
   
3. The election is to be held at the party convention where the candidates offer their visions for the party and the country. More than potential voters may be invited to such a convention.
   

Article 4: Party Flag And Election Symbol

1. The flag is to be a sky blue rectangle representing peace, and a golden sun in the middle to represent prosperity.
   
2. The party's election symbol is to be the pole star that symbolizes the party's relentless aspiration to provide the best possible vision for the country's future.
   

Article 5: Party Candidates For Inter-Party Elections

1. As to who the party candidate will be is to be decided by the active members at the said level through secret ballot elections held early enough to allow time for the larger election campaigns, unless specifically stated otherwise. A candidate has to be someone in the voting pool, or someone sponsored by at least three members in the voting pool.
   

Article 6: Election Commission, Appeals Committee

1. The central committee will elect a 7-member Election Commission from among its members. The commission may use the party structure at all levels to do its work. There must be at least a one degree of vertical separation for a party member to aid an internal party election in a leadership capacity.
   
2. The district, state and central committees are to elect a 3, 5 and 7 member Appeals Committees each.
   

Article 7: Membership Dues

1. Membership dues are to be collected by the wada committees and are to be passed on to the village/town/city committees. Each committee keeps one third to the nearest rupee and passes the rest to the committee directly above.
   
2. All book-keeping is to be transparent. Expenses to the last paisa are to be posted online on at least an annual basis.