Eleven Candidates Lose Deposits in Khotang Following House of Representatives Election Vote Count

Khotang. Following the completion of the vote counting for the House of Representatives election, the deposits of 11 candidates in Khotang have been forfeited. Each candidate was required to secure a minimum of 5,863 votes to retain their deposit. However, 11 candidates failed to achieve this threshold, resulting in the forfeiture of their deposits.

In Khotang, which has only one constituency for the House of Representatives, 62,257 votes were cast in the election held on Falgun 21. Out of the votes cast across 136 polling centers in the district's 10 local levels, 58,638 votes were deemed valid, while 3,928 votes were declared invalid, informed Chief Returning Officer and District Judge Phanindra Prasad Parajuli.

According to election law, a candidate forfeits their deposit if they fail to secure 10 percent of the total valid votes cast in their constituency. The legal provision states that the amount submitted by the candidate during registration at the Chief Returning Officer's office is forfeited and transferred to the state treasury.

The candidates whose deposits were forfeited include Rudra Giri of the Rastriya Swatantra Party, Deepak Tamang of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Sunil Chamling of the Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal, Dhyan Prasad Dhakal of the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party, and Prayag Rai of the Mongol National Organization.

Similarly, deposits were forfeited for Mires Rai of the Rastriya Parivartan Party, Kesharman Chamling of the Miteri Party Nepal, Chandrabahadur Budhathoki 'Shailesh' of the Nepali Communist Party, Rakesh Rai of the Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP), and independent candidates Tilakchandra Rai and Dr. Rajkumar Rai.

In the direct election, where there were 147,120 registered voters in the district, Aaren Rai, the General Secretary of the Shram Sanskriti Party, was elected as the House of Representatives member, securing 16,612 votes. The 29-year-old Aaren from Sumde in Fedee of Kpilashgadhi Rural Municipality defeated his closest competitor, Devbikram Rai, who is also the Chairman of CPN-UML Khotang, by a margin of 3,898 votes to be elected as the Member of Parliament.

CPN-UML candidate Devbikram received 12,714 votes, while Bir Kaji Rai of the Nepali Congress received 11,957, and Dr. Hari Roka of the CPN (Maoist Centre) received 9,443 votes. Political analysts had suggested that the competition in the district, which had 15 candidates including two independents, would be primarily among the established political parties (Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, and CPN (Maoist Centre)).

Meanwhile, according to the proportional representation vote results, the Shram Sanskriti Party became the leading political party in Khotang with 18,137 votes, followed by the Nepali Congress in second place with 11,385 votes. The CPN (UML), which was the largest party in the district in the 2079 elections with 24,271 votes, came in third with 10,705 votes.

The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which became the largest political party in the country in the direct election, finished as the fourth largest party in Khotang in the proportional representation category with 8,879 votes. The former CPN (Maoist Centre), which was in third place with 11,845 votes in the 2079 elections, is now the CPN (Maoist Centre) with 7,274 votes, according to Rabin Magar, Chief of the District Election Office, Khotang.

The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) received 837 votes, the Rastriya Parivartan Party 1,244, the Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) 202, the CPN (Maoist) 95, the Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal 72, and the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party 37 votes. The Chief Returning Officer's office noted that proportional votes were cast even for parties that did not have candidates in the district.

In the proportional representation category, out of 148,419 registered voters in the district, 63,257 votes were cast in the election held on Falgun 21. The Chief Returning Officer's office stated that out of the cast votes, 60,100 were declared valid, and 3,157 were declared invalid.