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SUBJECT [Dec 5] Nepal holds by-elections
DATE 2019-12-05
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PHOTO: The Kathmandu Post. Ms. Bidhya Bhattarai of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) wins a seat in the House of Representatives (Kaski-2 constituency) of Federal Parliament of Nepal.

                                    

 

As Nepal held by-elections last Saturday, November 30, election results have been announced this week. The by-elections were held to fill 52 vacant seats, which included one seat for House of Representative of Federal Parliament, three provincial assembly seats, and 48 local government seats.  

 

For by-elections wherein as many as 337 candidates participated, voter turnout was reported to be higher than 70%. 

 

The December by-elections were the first for Nepal Communist Party (NCP) to run for seats, after Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) (CPN-UML) and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) came into alliance in May 2018.

 

Despite its gains (from 28 to 31), NCP lost traditional communist constituencies such as Dharan Sub-metropolitan City. The opposition party, Nepali Congress (NC), won the mayoral seat for Dharan Sub-metropolitan City for the first time in nearly 60 years. 

 

NCP won the Kaski-2 seat in the House of Representatives but lost some of its ward seats to NC in Bhaktapur. Meanwhile, 43 ward seats were distributed among various parties, with NCP winning 24 seats, NC 12 seats, Samajbadi Party 4 seats, and Rastriya Janata Party 3 seats. 

 

After election results were announced, NCP’s General Secretary Bishnu Poudel said: “The election results in Bhaktapur surprised us and we will convene a meeting to evaluate the results… But we have retained several seats at the ward level and some new rural municipalities so the results are encouraging.”

 

As the recent by-elections were considered a “midway evaluation,” it is likely that the leaders of each party will examine their performance based on voting results.  

 

 

https://kathmandupost.com/politics/2019/12/01/in-by-election-results-ruling-party-popularity-declines-but-opposition-is-unable-to-capitalise

https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/bypolls-nepal-held-peacefully-1624039-2019-12-01

https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/ncp-directs-party-bodies-to-submit-poll-report/

https://www.nepal24hours.com/447998-2/

 

BY MSEAP Cyber Secretariat (mseap@assembly.go.kr)