Change Nepal Launches Digital Campaign Demanding Accountability from Mayor Balen Shah

​​Kathmandu: An organization called Change Nepal has launched an online petition demanding accountability from Balen Shah, the mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City.

The petition seeks to collect signatures to formally request a live interview with Shah through mainstream media. For this purpose, Change Nepal has sponsored a post on Facebook and called for public participation in the petition.

Shiva Kandel, co-founder of Change Nepal, said the organization plans to submit the petition to Shah after collecting 10,000 signatures, both online and offline.

Shah has not given an open interview to mainstream media since being elected mayor of Kathmandu in the local elections of 2079. Kandel said this has increased Shah’s distance from the public.

“Since people see him as a future prime minister, he needs to openly present his agenda to the public,” he said.

In the petition, Change Nepal addresses Shah, stating: “Since you were elected at the local level, you have embarked on a transformative leadership style. You are connecting directly with the public using social media. However, direct communication is only one pillar of a healthy democratic system. An equally important pillar is answering independent and subtle questions.”

The petition demands that Shah’s long-standing silence with mainstream media be broken through a live interview. It requests that he present a clear review of the work carried out during his tenure as mayor and clearly explain his political and philosophical foundations.

Change Nepal has also urged Shah, whom it describes as a future prime minister, to present a detailed blueprint for building a “New Nepal,” including a strategy to meet the expectations of the younger generation.

Change Nepal Reactivated After Gen-Z Movement

Kandel said Change Nepal was founded in 2020. He said Ujjal Khanal is also a co-founder of the initiative.

“I am a BSc Physics student, and Ujjal is a BBA student. However, we have been interested in technology since our Plus Two studies. We started Change Nepal through self-learning,” he said.

Kandel said that although Change Nepal was launched five years ago to raise political issues through technology, the group was not very active for some time.

“After the Gen-Z movement, we felt that Change Nepal should be reactivated. We have even developed an app,” he said.

The Change Nepal app has been released for both Android and Apple devices.

Change Nepal is also planning to allow users to review political leaders in a format similar to star ratings on Google. Kandel said the platform would allow people to openly review the work of political leaders, whether positive or negative.

“Future generations will also be able to see these reviews and understand what kind of work the leaders have done,” he said.

Kandel added that Change Nepal is also conducting research on electronic voting, which could have a long-term impact on Nepal’s voting system.

“After the formation of the interim government, there were discussions about cross-border voting systems. However, that was not possible in this election. We are working on developing an online voting system,” he said.

 

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