43 candidates in the fray for 19 seats
By Our Reporter
Forty-three candidates from nine political parties have filed their candidacy for the elections of 19 National Assembly members, which are going to fall vacant in March.
While five ruling parties have fielded their common candidates by sharing the seats among them the main opposition CPN-UML nominated its candidates in all 19 seats.
According to an agreement reached among the ruling parties in a meeting held on Monday, NC nominated six candidates, CPN-Maoist Centre and CPN (Unified Socialist) each fielded five candidates, Janata Samjwadi Party-Nepal two candidates and the Rashtriya Janamorcha one.
Likewise, RPP and Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party fielded two candidates each and Loktantrik Samajwadi Party nominated a single candidate for the elections.
However, all 19 seats are likely to be swept away by the parties in the ruling coalition if the voters did not deceive their parties. The UML has its stronger position only in Province 1, and the party has little hope to win three seats of the province. That too looks unlikely, as the ruling coalition has 200 more votes than the UML in the province.
The NA election will also show the strength of the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led CPN (Unified Socialist), especially at local levels, as many chiefs and deputy chiefs elected from the UML have not exposed their political loyalty.
Although 20 of the 59-seat NA Assembly are going to fall vacant in March, one member will be nominated by the president on the recommendation of the government. Eight of the lawmakers whose term is expiring are from the UML, and the party is likely to lose all seats. The ruling coalition divided the eight seats among them while in 11 other seats they fielded their candidates based on their previous positions, i.e. the parties fielded candidates for the post in which their candidates are serving now.
The candidates filed their candidacy in Election Commission (EC) Offices in all seven provinces.
The Office of the EC published the list of all candidates Tuesday evening. According to EC, altogether eight filed their candidacies in Province-1, five in Province 2, six each in Bagmati, Gandaki, Lumbini, Karnali and Sudurpaschim provinces.
According to the constitutional provision, the National Assembly has to conduct the election for its one-third members and the election is scheduled for January 26.
Earlier on Sunday, NC, CPN-UML and CPN (Unified Socialist) had picked their candidates.
Maoist national convention ends reelecting its all-time chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal
Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda has been re-elected as chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) from its 8th national convention which concluded in Kathmandu on Sunday.
He was elected unopposed as party chair by the first meeting of the new central committee of the party held in Lalitpur on Monday.
A proposal to elect Dahal as the party chair was made by leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha and his proposal was backed by leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara. The proposal was unanimously approved by the members of the central committee.
According to the statute of the party, the central committee has the right to elect all the office bearers including the chairman.
However, the first meeting remained undecided regarding other office-bearers.
Dahal has been chair of the party since its formation some 30 years ago, and no leader dared to challenge his position in the party that waged a violent struggle in which 17,000 people were killed from 1996 to 2006.
After the meeting, chairman Dahal told the media that the next meeting would be held on January 10 to discuss and decide the election of the office bearers, standing committee and members of the politburo committee.
According to him, the party will announce the office bearers only after leader Barshaman Pun returns home from China. Pun is currently in China for medical treatment.
The party’s executive committee comprises one senior vice-chair, six vice-chairs, one general secretary, two deputy general secretaries, three secretaries and one treasurer apart from the chairman.
Earlier, Dahal had named 236 of 299 central members in the closed session of the convention which was endorsed unanimously. However, when a large number of the central committee members have been nominated from the same families, many of them couple, Dahal’s nomination of central committee members drew media criticism.
It is said that Dahal is in a difficult position to name office bearers as leaders Janardan Sharma, Barshaman Pun and Pampha Bhusal are lobbying for the post of the general secretary.
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