According to the NC 12th General Convention Election Committee, the voting will be held at the Nepal Academy premises at Kamaladi from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. [break]
The Election Committee plans to start counting the votes for the party president shortly after the voting process is over and announce a run-off vote for Tuesday should none of the three candidates garner 51 percent of votes cast in the first round.
Three candidates - Acting President Sushil Koirala, senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and Bhim Bahadur Tamang - are in the race for party president. Party insiders say Tamang is likely to garner fewer votes compared to the two others.
A total of 3,088 general convention representatives are taking part in Tuesdays´ voting. Leaders close to both Koirala and Deuba claimed respectively that they were leading their rival by 250 to 300 prospective votes.
Both factions were busy till late Monday evening preparing their respective panels contesting the 25 CWC memberships in the open category in order to secure berths for their people in the 85-member central decision making body. Sources said they will pepare their respective panels of 15 to 20 out of the total 25 members in the open category.
According to advocate Basu Dev Acharya, a polling officer for Tuesday´s voting, they have arranged three separate booths for the voting. Some 150 polling officers, mostly university teachers and lawyers, will be mobilized at the election venue from 6:30 a.m.
Acharya said there will be nine different ballot papers including one for the post of party president and another for general secretary and treasurer. Likewise, there will be separate ballot papers for each of those contesting the 25 CWC memberships in the open category and 14 members in the zonal category. The Election Committee has also arranged separate ballot papers for the reserved categories of Madhesi, Dalit, Aadibasi/Janajati, women and Muslims.
According to the Election Committee, vote counting for the other posts including general secretary, treasurer and CWC members will be conducted at NC headquarters, Sanepa only after declaring the winner for the post of party president.
With 23 members withdrawing their candidacies, a total of 238 members are in the race for various positions including general secretary, treasurer and CWC members.
While Bimalendra Nidhi is contesting the post of general secretary from Deuba´s panel, Prakash Man Singh represents Koirala´s panel for the same post. Tamang has chosen Narahari Acharya as his ´running mate´ for the post of general secretary. Similarly, Chitra Lekha Yadav and Padma Narayan Chaudhari are contesting for treasurer from the Deuba and Koirala panels respectively.
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