Nine people have registered candidacies for the by-election to be held in Rupandehi-3 from Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP). RSP listed the candidates on its Facebook page on Thursday.
Those in the fray for the election are Sulav Kharel, Parthivendra Upadhyay, Lekhjung Thapa, Gyanu Paudel, Jit Bahadur Gupta, Kusum Maharjan, Rachana Kshetri, Punam Kumari Agrawal, and Madhu Prasad Aryal. Except for Maharjan, all are from Rupandehi.
Objections, if any, can be raised against the candidacies with RSP’s Central Election Commission from 10 AM to 5 PM on Friday, informed Bipin Acharya, said RSP General Secretary, who is also the election commander for Rupandehi-3.
The preliminary list of candidates will be published on August 11.
Likewise, RSP will conduct a primary election to select the candidate from among the applicants, which will carry a weightage of 50 percent.
The primary election will take place from 7 AM to 7 PM on August 28-29, during which RSP party members of Rupandehi-3 and central members will be eligible to vote, Acharya said.
The 50 percent weightage from the primary election will be considered as 100 percent, and during the final selection, votes from RSP members in Rupandehi-3 will carry 80 percent weightage, while votes from committee members of RSP in the same constituency will carry 10 percent. Similarly, central members will have a 10 percent weightage.
The final candidate will be determined based on the scores obtained from the primary election and the party's decision.
The federal seat became vacant after the death of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) lawmaker Deepak Bohara in April. The election is scheduled for November 3.
.
