KATHMANDU, 28: Two months after the general convention, the CPN (Unified Socialist) elected 18 office-bearers of the party through an election which continued until late night on Tuesday.

The Unified Socialist’s general convention was held in Kathmandu from June 30 to July 5. At that time, the convention unanimously elected Madhav Kumar Nepal as the party’s chairman, Ghanshyam Bhusal as general secretary, and Jhala Nath Khanal as honorable leader. Out of the 21 positions of office-bearers, only three were filled, leaving 18 positions vacant.

The remaining 18 office-bearers were expected to be appointed based on the party’s internal consensus; however, it did not happen as party insiders said leaders close to Chairperson Nepal lobbied hard to hold elections. As a result, an election took place for the 17 remaining office-bearer positions, with 67 contenders participating. Rajendra Pandey was elected unopposed as senior vice-chairperson after another candidate, Ghanendra Basnet, withdrew his candidacy.

The Unified Socialist has a provision for 4 vice-chairpersons, including those in the open category out of the six vice-chairpersons in total.

In the women's vice-chairperson cluster, Jayanthi Rai was elected as the female vice-chairperson, defeating Ramkumari Jhakri. Rai received 199 votes, while Jhakri got only 112 votes.

Similarly, Dharma Nath Shah was elected as vice-chairperson from the Madheshi cluster, defeating Ramchandra Jha.

In the open vice-chairperson category, Dr Gangalal Tuladhar, Bhanubhakta Joshi, Prakash Jwala, and Jagannath Khatiwada were elected. Tuladhar garnered 189 votes, Joshi 156, Jwala 139, and Khatiwada 161 votes.

Metmani Chaudhary, Ram Kumar Bhattarai, Rajendra Rai, and Garima Shah were elected as deputy general secretaries, with Chaudhary receiving the most votes (158). Rai received 106 votes, while Bhattarai and Shah each received 107 votes. Nineteen contenders competed for the four deputy general secretary positions.

Similarly, Ganesh Bahadur Bishwakarma was elected as secretary from the Dalit category with 180 votes, and Baldev Chaudhary was elected as secretary from the Indigenous cluster with 175 votes.

In the open cluster of Secretary, Sher Bahadur Kunwar, Chandra Bahadur Shahi, Somprasad Pandey, Sabitra Kumari Bhusal, and Shreenath Baral were elected. Kunwar received 153 votes, Shahi 91, Pandey 141, Bhusal 106, and Baral 107 votes.

 
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