Spread the love

By Our Reporter

Political parties are now busy organising door-to-door campaigns to woo the voters for the local-level by-elections scheduled for December 1.

On the eve of the election, the political parties and independent candidates are working hard to win the elections.

A total of 380 candidates are in the fray for 41 positions, 34 of them for ward chairs of the local levels.  The by-election will elect one mayor of Kirtipur Municipality in Kathmandu, and two chairs of two rural municipalities–one each in Morang and Dailekh, one deputy mayor and three deputy chiefs.

The political parties have given importance to the by-elections and the leaders are visiting the concerned municipality, rural municipality and wards seeking votes for their candidates.

The results will obviously show which party is popular among the votes and they will also serve as a prediction for the 2027 general elections. In this context, the elections for the Kirtipur Municipality mayor and the post of ward chair in Kathmandu Metropolitan City-16 are important.  While the election in Kirtipur will show the strength of the three big paries—NC, UML and Maoist Centre, the election in KMC 16 will test the popularity of Rastriya Swatantra Party whose chairman Rabi Lamichhane is now in custody on the charge of embezzling the money of cooperatives. RSP did not field its candidate in Kirtipur. 

The Election Commission and Home Ministry have made preparations to hold the elections in a fair manner. The Ministry of Home Affairs has decided to deploy 7,200 police personnel for the local level by-elections.

The Central Security Committee led by Minister for Home Affairs Ramesh Lekhak has approved the election security plan, assigning 16 police officers to highly sensitive polling stations.

The plan also designates 14 police officers for sensitive polling stations and 12 for normal polling stations.

Based on the analysis of the local elections held on May 13, 2022, 54 polling stations have been classified as highly sensitive, 47 as sensitive, and 62 as normal.

The polling stations in Dakneshwari Rural Municipality of Saptari, Putha Uttarganga Rural Municipality of Rukum East, and Nalagadh Municipality of Jajarkot have been categorised as ‘highly sensitive’.

The by-elections are being held for the positions of ward chairperson in Dakneshwari, Vice-chairperson in Putha Uttarganga Rural Municipality and Deputy Mayor in Nalagadh Municipality.

Earlier, President Ramchandra Paudel permitted the government to mobilise the army as per the government’s recommendation.

To ensure security in the by-elections, both the Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force had already formed central election cells.