Okhaldhunga Election Results Show Significant Discrepancy Between Direct and Proportional Votes

Kathmandu. In the direct election for the House of Representatives held on Falgun 21, Bishwaraj Pokharel of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was elected from Okhaldhunga by a margin of 5 votes. Due to the extremely narrow margin (5 votes) of victory and defeat among the 165 constituencies in this election, the Okhaldhunga result became a subject of great interest for many this time. Falling behind by 5 votes forced Nepali Congress candidate Kumar Luitel to settle for the runner-up position, closing the path to parliament.

Although the public results showed a 5-vote difference between Pokharel and Luitel in the direct competition, the difference in party-wise or proportional votes in the district appears unusually large. This suggests that voters prefer not to vote for only one party and one candidate.

While RSP candidate Bishwaraj Pokharel received 13,953 votes, the total proportional votes cast in the district for the RSP's 'Bell' symbol were 17,639. Looking at this calculation, if we subtract the 13,953 votes Pokharel received from the 17,639 proportional votes received by the RSP under the 'Bell' symbol, resulting in 3,686 votes, it appears that those votes went to the 'Bell' symbol but not to the candidate.

On the other hand, Nepali Congress candidate Kumar Luitel, who came in second with 13,948 direct votes, received only 12,891 proportional votes for the Congress in the district. This is 1,057 votes less than the Congress candidate received. Similarly, CPN-UML candidate Asmita Thapa received 10,720 votes, and the UML's proportional votes also decreased. In Okhaldhunga, the CPN-UML received 9,210 proportional votes. Looking at this, the vote difference between the CPN-UML and its candidate appears to be 1,210, indicating that more votes went in favor of the candidate than the party.

Even more interesting is the difference seen in the votes received by the candidate of the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN), Ambir Babu Gurung. While Gurung received 11,296 direct votes, the proportional votes cast for this party under the 'Star' symbol were only 6,965. Here, the difference between the candidate and the party vote is 4,331.

The variation between the votes cast directly and proportionally suggests that the personal influence of the candidate and the influence of the party may have played a role among the voters.