Nepali ruling party wins local elections

Kathmandu, May 31 (IANS) The ruling Nepali Congress has emerged as the biggest winner in recently-held local elections, as the vote count was completed.

The voting was completed on Monday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Nepali Congress led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, which contested the polls held on May 13 by forming an electoral alliance with its ruling partners, won the posts of Chiefs in 329 local units, up from 266 in the last local elections held in 2017.

The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), the main opposition, comes second by securing the chief posts in 205 local units, down from 296 in 2017.

The May 13 polls were held for 753 local governments. While the results for 752 local units have been announced by Monday, a re-election will be conducted in the last one where the voting was rigged on the election day.

“The counting from all the local units, except in one where re-election will be held in a few days, is over,” Tulasi Bahadur Shrestha, a Joint Secretary at the Election Commission, told Xinhua.

“The Congress has won the highest number of local units, followed by the CPN-UML and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre).”

The Maoist Centre won in 121 local units this time, up from 106 in 2017. While the Janata Samajbadi Party and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Socialist) which was formed after splitting from the CPN-UML in August 2021, both ruling partners of the Nepali Congress, come fourth and fifth with 30 and 20 in the polls.

As many as 35,221 Mayors and Deputy Mayors of municipalities, Chairpersons and Vice-Chairpersons of rural municipalities, and ward chairs and members have been elected from recent polls for the next five years.

A CPN-UML leader said the party did not fare well as expected because it was fighting alone against five parties.

“We will fare better in the federal and provincial elections,” Bishal Bhattarai, the CPN-UML’s Chief whip, told Xinhua.

The elections for federal and provincial parliaments are expected to be held within months.

–IANS
int/khz/