Kathmandu, Feb. 26 -- up to the elections, almost all parties contesting the polls last week unveiled their plans for the next five years. Compared to previous elections, parties have presented these plans under different labels this time. Their agendas for the next five to 10 years have been released under various names such as pratigyapatra (pledge paper), wachapatra (commitment paper), manifesto, and sankalpa (resolution).

But how closely do these publicly announced plans align with the actual priorities of ordinary citizens?

In our recent study, we conducted face-to-face interviews with 2,905 people and asked an open-ended question: "When deciding whether to support a political party or vote for a candidate, what factors do you prim...