The government is set to conduct by-elections on December 1 to elect new people's representatives for the vacant positions at the local level.
According to the Election Commission, various 40 posts at the local level are lying vacant due to passing away of people's representatives owing to various reasons including accidents, disasters and diseases.
Those 40 posts lying vacant include two heads of district coordination committees, two chairpersons of rural municipalities, one mayor of a municipality, four deputy chairpersons of rural municipalities, one deputy mayor of a municipality, nine ward chairs of rural municipalities and 21 ward chairs of municipalities.
The local elections had been held on May 13, 2022. At the local level, there is a provision that by-elections should be held if there is a vacancy within the term of one year. Accordingly, the Election Commission called for the registration of the voter list on August 13, 2024, for the by-election.
Similarly, by-elections will be held on December 1 if any post becomes vacant by the date of publication of the final voter list by the EC. According to Suman Ghimire, the information officer at the EC, the final voter list will be approved and published in the next one month.
"The date of approval and publication of the final voter list has not yet been decided," he told Nepalkhabar, "However, the final list will be published within the next one month, i.e., mid-October, for the December 1 by-election."
Of the 40 vacant posts, Nepali Congress had won 25 seats followed by CPN (Maoist Center) with seven seats while CPN (UML) had won six seats. Similarly, Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal and one independent candidate had won one seat each.
