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Kathmandu Tuesday January 23, 2001 Magh 10, 2057.
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PM Koirala re-elected as NC President
CWC result likely to be mixed
By Ameet Dhakal and Meena Kaini
POKHARA, Jan 22 - Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has been elected to
the post of Nepali Congress president for the second term by scoring over 64 per cent of
the votes.
Koirala obtained 936 votes out of the total valid 1,453 votes and defeated
his two rivals by huge margin. His closest rival former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba
obtained 507 votes, while the third contender and former minister Ram Hari Joshi managed
to score only 10 votes. Joshi, who was a candidate for the party president also during the
last general conference, had then obtained 12 votes.
Out of total 1,477 convention representatives only 1,468 cast their votes. P
L Singh, lawmaker from Kathmandu boycotted the voting. 15 votes were disqualified.
The election result is yet to be declared officially. Mukunda Regmi,
Coordinator of the Central Election Committee informed that the election results will be
declared officially tomorrow morning.
Though Koirala has vanquished his rivals with huge margins scoring over 64
per cent of the votes, the margin has significantly shrunk this time compared to the
margin during the last general convention. During the ninth general convention held in
Kathmandu in 1995, Koirala had scored over 81 per cent of the votes defeating his close
rival Chiranjivi Wagle. Wagle is currently a key member of the Deuba camp.
The election arithmetic is also not inspiring for Deuba camp. The camp was
expecting to garner over 40 per cent votes to show its growing influence. But it has added
just over 200 votes to what Wagle had obtained during the last general convention.
However,
votes obtained by Deuba is in line with the number of lawmakers that have
supported him. About 32 per cent of the NC lawmakers are with Deuba and over 34 per cent
of the convention representatives have voted him.
After the outcome of the result, former Prime Minister Deuba conceded his
defeat today and went to congratulate PM Koirala.
Talking to the reporters Deuba said, "I concede my defeat and I have
already congratulated PM Koirala."
Though Koirala was not available for comments after the announcement of the
result, talking to the reporters after casting his vote, Koirala had said that he would
win with comfortable margin.
Talking to The Kathmandu Post, former Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai
said, " I’m sorry for Deuba’s defeat. We had a chance to break Girija
Prasad Koirala’s monopoly in the party but we lost this time." Bhattarai further
added, " We will wait for another situation where we will try to defeat him."
Sailaja Acharya, former deputy Prime Minister and senior NC leader said,
"the result was expected," adding " the party should remain united."
According to the votes counted for the post of the Central Working Committee
(CWC) members till 12:30 p.m., the final result is expected to be mixed one. Majority of
the senior leaders from both the camps are expected to win. Of the over 150 votes counted
so far, Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Poudel, Sailaja Acharya, Sushil Koirala, Khum
Bahadur Khadka, Govinda Raj Joshi, Arjun Narsingh KC, Prakash Koirala and Prakash Man
Singh are maintaining a lead.
The convention representatives are for the first time voting to elect 18 out
of 37 CWC members. The convention had yesterday endorsed an amendment in the party statute
that allowed the provision of electing fifty per cent of the CWC members through voting.
Meanwhile, a third-day close door session that concluded here today morning
endorsed the Political Report presented by the party General Secretary Sushil Koirala and
Policy and Program Report presented by Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Poudel.
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