Voting Underway for National Assembly Election in Bagmati Province

Hetauda. Voting is taking place today for the upcoming National Assembly election. All preparations have been completed for the election to fill 2 seats from the Bagmati Province.

According to the Office of the Chief Election Officer for the National Assembly Member Election in Bagmati Province, all preparations for the election are complete, and the voting program is scheduled from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM on Sunday.

Six candidates have filed nominations for the two seats of the National Assembly member in Bagmati Province. Candidates have registered from the alliance (UML and Congress), the Nepal Communist Party (NCP), and the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party (NWPP).

For the election to be held in the Women and Other clusters of the Bagmati Provincial Assembly, a female candidate from the Nepali Congress and a male candidate from the CPN-UML have registered their nominations.

For the National Assembly member election, the Congress has nominated Gita Devkota from Chitwan for the Women cluster, while Dr. Prem Prasad Dangal from the CPN-UML has filed his nomination for the Other cluster.

Prem Sapkot (Rajendra) and Saroj Kumari Jha have filed nominations for the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) for the Other and Women clusters, respectively. Two candidates from the NWPP have also registered their nominations.

It appears that the alliance between the CPN-UML and Congress, which have formed an alliance for the National Assembly election, will secure a majority. Out of a total of 18 seats being contested, 2 terms in Bagmati Province will become vacant, and the election is being held for those positions. The alliance of UML and Congress is set to ensure a majority of the total voters in this election.

The terms of Beduram Bhusal and Gangakumari Belwase from the Other cluster representing Bagmati Province are set to expire next Falgun.

There are 348 voters in Bagmati Province, comprising 110 members of the Provincial Assembly and 238 chiefs/deputy chiefs from local levels. Looking at the vote weight of the parties, the alliance is in a majority position.

Among these, one people's representative will be unable to participate in the voting due to a corruption case. Similarly, 6 provincial assembly members and 3 mayors have also lost their voting rights. These 9 individuals will not be able to vote because they have filed nominations for the House of Representatives or resigned from the Provincial Assembly.

Those who have lost voting rights include Congress's Kundan Kafle, RPP's Sunil KC, UML's Prakash Shrestha and Aman Kumar Maske, who resigned from the Provincial Assembly, as well as then CPN (Unified Socialist) lawmakers (now in NCP) Basanta Manandhar and Yubaraj Dulal. Furthermore, Balendra Shah, Renu Dahal, and Ashok Byanju, who resigned from the post of local level chief to become candidates in the House of Representatives election, will also be unable to vote.

According to Gita Shrestha, Chief Election Officer for the National Assembly Election in Bagmati Province, those who resigned from the Provincial Assembly and local levels to contest for the House of Representatives will not be able to vote. She clarified that their names were removed from the voter list because the same person cannot hold roles in two positions.

The election will be conducted based on the final voter list issued by the Election Commission, which keeps the total number of voters at 338. Out of 110 provincial assembly members in Bagmati Province, 104 retain voting rights, while 234 out of 238 local level representatives will be eligible to vote.

Accordingly, the total vote weight for Bagmati Province is 9,958. Based on this vote weight, the vote weight of the 104 provincial assembly members whose voting rights are maintained (at a rate of 53 each) is 5,512, and the vote weight of the 234 local level representatives (at a rate of 19 each) is 4,446, totaling 9,958.

Congress has 37 seats in the Provincial Assembly and 108 chiefs/deputy chiefs at the local level. One Congress people's representative is suspended due to a corruption case, and one provincial member has resigned, meaning they will not be able to participate in the election. Thus, the total vote weight for Congress reaches 3,941.

Similarly, CPN-UML is in second place with a total vote weight of 2,446 after two provincial members and one local level chief resigned. With the alliance between Congress and UML, the combined vote weight of both parties reaches 6,387.

Meanwhile, after two provincial members and one local level chief from the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) resigned, its vote weight stands at 2,613. After one member resigned, the RPP has only 12 seats in the Provincial Assembly.

Furthermore, due to its weak presence at the local level, the RPP's vote weight is only 655. The Nepal Workers and Peasants Party has a vote weight of 197, and the Hamro Nepali Party has 106.