After this years ANA at Baltimore, the Boston saga is slowly being forgotten. The public has a short attention span and in fact are tired of hearing about the Boston screw up.

Everyone is watching the upcoming ANA elections to be held this week. Due to the bad publicity received by the ANA every year, most people seem to be watching from the sidelines. The ones who are getting involved are the ones who have aspirations of holding the new elected office.

In the past, elections used to happen inside closed doors but this year it's taking a whole new turn. It is not 100% clear how the actual voting will take place and how credible the voting system is. The election committee needs to clarify how the whole process works and how they have placed checks and balance in the system so that there is no screw up. Who is to guarantee that the IT person behind the voting related software is not going to skew the results to his likings?

No matter how much this years election is being touted as democratic, until and unless a clear procedural documentation is provided by the ANA with regards to this democratic election, the election will still remain a typical playground of a few.

Getting onto the candidates, there is clearly a divide between the two groups who have identified themselves.

ANA Election Candidates

TEAM UNO

REVITALIZING ANA TEAM

President Dhiren Gurung, TX Senior Vice President : Mr. Robin Thapa, NH Vice President : Mr. Karma Tenzing, NY General Secretary : Mr. Bijay Thapa, VA Secretary : Miss Shradda Regmi, MN Treasurer : Mr. NavaRaj Shrestha, CO Deputy Treasurer : Mr. Bishnu Mani Acharya, MA Information Director : Mr. Nischal Shrestha, OH Member at Large : Mr. Bibeck Basnet (aka DJ Harkay), MD Member at Large : Mr. Pravin Shrestha, MA Member at Large : Mr. Kailash Thapa, MN  If you want to know more about “UNO” Team ANA, Please visit our website www.dhirengurung.com.

President Mr. H.B Bhandari, Baltimore, MD   Senior Vice-President Mr. Dhurba Ghimire, Boston, MA Vice-President Mr. Lok Chhantyal, Harrisburg, PA   General Secretary Mr. Sundar Karmacharya ,Lewisville, TX   Secretary Mr. Manmohan Singh Ghimire, New York, NY   Treasurer Dr. Anup Srivastab, California, CA   Deputy Treasurer Mr. Shiva Bista , Towson, MD   Information Director Mr. Ramesh Lamichhane, Dover, PA   Member Mr. Arjun B. Hamal , Nottingham MD   Member Mr. Binaya Aryal, Falls Church, VA   Member at Large Ms. Sita Pandey, Gaithersburg, MD       Thanks Revitalizing ANA TEAM http://revitalizingana.com/

Team UNO:
Most members of this team came out of the Facebook group which called for boycotting ANA ironically. The members are young and energetic. Their focus will mainly be sports, partying and catering mostly to the young crowd. Why they chose a spanish word UNO is not clear. Team EK would sounded much better in my opinion.

Revitalizing Team:
Most members of this team have been involved with Nepali organizations for many years. They have experience but would they continue the same old staleness at the ANA is a good question. Their focus would be more spread out such as Cultural programs, Literature, Nepalese cuisine, in addition to sports and parties.

In my opinion both teams would be an interesting choice but as far as voting goes, it seems like the voters will chose who gets elected to each position so the final team will be a mix of both teams which will keep a good balance between the modern young Nepalese and the more traditionally and culturally inclined.

The modern vs cultural divide is becoming more significant and clearer as the Nepali diaspora grows within the US. On one group are the students who were raised in the US or came to the US for their undergraduate degree and now have become more in tune with the US culture while still retaining the connection to the Nepal. The other group being more recent immigrants who have come to the US in later part of their life or growing up in a more traditional environment in a Nepali household in US. How they will be catered to during the next convention will depend on the upcoming election.