KATHMANDU, Jan 24: The ruling Nepal Communist Party clean swept the election for 18-member upper house elections Thursday.
The party won 16 seats whereas Rastriya Janata Party bagged the remaining two seats.
“NCP bagged 16 seats and Rastriya Janata Party won the remaining two seatas,” said the Election Commission’s Spokesperson Raj Kumar Shrestha. The main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) couldn’t secure even a single seat.
Previously, the upper house members were elected through a single transferable voting system. Out of the 59 seats in the upper house, NCP had then secured 42 seats, including three nominated by the president.
Among the 59 members, 19 have a tenure of two years, 20 have four-year tenures and the rest have six years, according to upper house regulations.
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Among the 19 outgoing members, nine are from the NCP, seven from the Nepali Congress, two from Rastriya Janata Party and one from Samajbadi Party. The NC lost all seven seats.
NCP and RJPN had forged an electoral alliance to counter another alliance led by the NC. Samajbadi Party had fielded candidates in coordination with the NC.
In Province 1, all three candidates — Gopi Achhami, Indira Gautam and Devendra Dahal of NCP emerged victorious.
In Province 2, NCP leader Radheshyam Paswan was elected upper house member under Dalit quota whereas Mirgendra Yadav of RJPN was elected under ‘other’ category. Paswan defeated Ramprit Paswan of Samajbadi Party. RJPN’s Yadav defeated SP’s Anirudra Singh.
Tulasa Dahal and Radheshyam Paswan of NCP elected from Province 2 whereas Ganga Belbase and Beduram Bhusal from Province 3 elected.
NCP’s spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha and Bhagwati Neupane were elected members of upper house from Gandaki Province. NC’s candidates Surya Prasad Regmi and Bimala Gauchan were defeated by NCP candidates.
In Province 5, all three NCP candidates emerged victorious defeating NC candidates. NCP had fielded Gopal Bhattarai, Jag Prasad Sharma and Bimala Grimire under open, disable and women quota respectively.
NC’s Balkrishna Pandey, Meharaj Ahamed Halawai and Girija Devi Neupane were fielded against NCP candidates.
In Karnali Province, Maya Prasad Sharma and Sumitra BC of NCP emerged victorious defeating NC’s Dilaram Pathak and Ganesh Kumari Basnet.
Taraman Swar and Sharada Bhatta of NCP were elected from Sudur Paschim Province.
Provincial assembly members and the chiefs and deputy chiefs of local units voted for the new upper house members. The remaining one member will be nominated by the president, as per law.
