Voting for NA by-polls over, counting underway

Published On: May 20, 2021 05:03 PM NPT By: Republica | @RepublicaNepal

KATHMANDU, May 20: Voting for a vacant seat in the National Assembly from Bagmati Province, which began at 9 AM on Thursday, concluded at 3 PM.

The Hetauda-based Bhutan Devi Secondary School was designated as the polling center for the by-poll. Of the total 347 voters, 338 participated in the voting while nine chose to abstain from it. An electoral college of 347 voters --- 109 Bagmati Province Assembly members and 347 chiefs and deputy chiefs of local units in the province --- is supposed to elect the member for the upper house.

Three candidates ---- ruling CPN-UML’s Ram Bahadur Thapa, Dr Khimlal Devkota of oppoision alliance including the Nepali Congress (NC), CPN (Maoist Center) and Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) and Krishna Bahadur Tamang of Nepal Workers and Peasants Party (NWPP)--- are in the electoral race.

Meanwhile, vote counting has just begun in Hetauda, according to Raj Kumar Shrestha, spokesperson for the Election Commission. The results of the polls will be announced on Thursday evening itself.