By Our Reporter

The local level by-election for 44 positions of 34 districts has begun with 410 candidates registering their nominations on Sunday. The by-election is taking place on December 1.

Of them, the chief of the Okhaldhunga District Coordination Committee was elected unopposed.

Nomination registration of the candidates was completed peacefully, the Election Commission (EC) said on Sunday night.

Of 410 candidates, 289 are party candidates and 121 independent candidates.

According to the EC, candidacy nominations were registered for various posts across multiple districts, including two female candidates for the position of Kailali District Coordination Committee chief and one male candidate for the post of Okhaldhunga District Coordination Committee chief. NC candidate was elected unopposed in Okhaldhunga.

For eight vacant posts, including chairs and deputy-chairs of rural municipalities and a mayor and a deputy-mayor of two municipalities, a total of 84 candidates—35 women, 48 men, and one from the ‘other’ gender category—registered their nominations.

Similarly, a total of 323 nominations were filed for 34 vacant posts of ward chairs in rural municipalities and municipalities. This included 29 women, 293 men and one ‘other’ candidate.

According to the EC, Dhanusha District’s Dhanushadham Municipality Ward-1 saw the highest number of candidates, with 21 individuals contesting for the post of ward chair while only three candidates each filed nominations for the ward chair posts in Putha Uttarganga Rural Municipality Ward-2 of Rukum (East) District and Surma Rural Municipality Ward-4 of Bajhang District.

The by-election will provide an opportunity for the political parties to test their popularity. However, in Kirtpur Municipality in Kathmandu, the Rastriya Swatantra Party, which has been claiming to be the most popular party, did not file a nomination for the post of mayor and two ward chairs. Although the party said that it did not file nomination in Kirtipur, a dispute between the local committee and central committee led to the situation as the local committees recommended the name of the candidate against the will of the central committee.

But in Kathmandu 16, RSP filed nomination for the ward chair.

Obviously, the Nepali Congress and the UML are the main contestants in almost all positions. Surprisingly, the two parties have filed common candidates for the post of vice chair in Putha Uttagaga Rural Municipality in Rukum East and a ward chair of the same rural municipality. NC did not file nominations for this position while UML did not file nominations for the posts of the District Coordination Committees in Okhaldhunga and Kailali. NC had earlier decided not to forge an electoral alliance in any election.

Of the 44 vacant positions, Maoist candidates had won in the 2022 elections, and the party will be finding it difficult to retain them as the party had won the seats in the support of NC as NC and the Maoist Centre had forged electoral alliances. The same can be applied for NC.

It is said that UML is in comfortable positions in many of the local levels where the by-elections are being held.

Source : https://www.peoplesreview.com.np/2024/11/20/by-elections-a-test-on-political-parties-popularity/