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Kathmandu, January 25: The election for members of the National Assembly is being held today (Sunday).

The term of 19 members of the National Assembly is ending on Falgun 20. Among them, Sunil Bahadur Thapa, a candidate of the Nepali Congress from Koshi Province, has already been elected unopposed as a National Assembly member. According to Election Commission spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai, elections will be held on Sunday for the remaining 17 seats.

Thapa was elected unopposed after CPN candidate Hemraj Ghimire failed to arrive in time to register his candidacy. Likewise, one member will be nominated by the President. Elections will be held for the remaining 17 members.

According to the Election Commission, voting will be held in polling centers across all seven provinces from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Sunday.

In the National Assembly election, members of the Provincial Assemblies and chiefs/chairpersons and deputy chiefs/vice-chairpersons of local levels serve as voters.

In the National Assembly election, the vote weight has been fixed at 19 for local levels and 53 for Provincial Assembly members.

Assistant spokesperson of the Commission, Kul Bahadur GC, informed that the names of some Provincial Assembly members and local-level chiefs, deputy chiefs, chairpersons, and vice-chairpersons have been removed from the voters’ list as they resigned and registered candidacies for the House of Representatives election.

According to the Commission, 44 candidates had filed nominations for 18 seats. Of these, the Nepali Congress and UML have fielded candidates for 9 and 8 seats respectively under a seat-sharing agreement. For the remaining one seat, they have supported Mahanta Thakur, the candidate of the Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (LSP).

From Koshi Province, 3 members will be elected; from Madhesh Province, 4; from Bagmati and Gandaki Provinces, 2 each; from Lumbini Province, 3; and from Karnali and Sudurpaschim Provinces, 2 each.

Under the seat-sharing arrangement, the candidates in Koshi Province are Sunil Bahadur Thapa from the Nepali Congress, and Roshni Meche and Som Portel from the UML. In Madhesh Province, the candidates are Dhamendra Paswan and Ranjit Karn from the Nepali Congress, and Rekha Jha from the UML.

In Bagmati Province, the Nepali Congress has nominated Gita Devkota and the UML has nominated Prem Dangal. In Gandaki Province, Jagat Timilsina from the Nepali Congress and Smriti Devkota from the UML are candidates. In Lumbini Province, the candidates are Basudev Jangli and Chandra Bahadur KC from the Nepali Congress, and Ram Kumari Jhakri from the UML.

In Karnali Province, Lalit Jung Shahi from the Nepali Congress and Mina Rakhal from the CPN-UML are candidates. In Sudurpaschim Province, the candidates are Khamba Bahadur Khati from the Nepali Congress and Leela Bhandari from the CPN-UML. The Communist Party of Nepal has fielded single candidates everywhere.