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Kathmandu Thursday June 28, 2001 Ashadh 14, 2058.
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UML gains in NA polls
King nominates 3
By Binaj Gurubacharya
KATHMANDU, June 27 - The main opposition CPN-UML swept the
National Assembly elections today getting eight of their members elected to the Upper
House of Parliament against seven by the ruling Nepali Congress.
The victory brings the number of CPN-UML members in the House
to 23 while NC’s number has now dropped to 21 in the 60-member House, also called the
house of the elites.
All the seven NC members, including the only woman candidate,
were elected by the 205 lawmakers of the House of Representatives, the Lower House.
However, CPN-UML winning three seats at the Lower House went
on to sweep all the five seats from the five development regions where over 8,000 members
from the local bodies voted today to elect these people.
During the voting at parliament, four votes from NC and one
from CPN-UML lawmakers were declared invalid that almost ended up costing two NC
candidates their seats.
Regulations say that each candidate needs at least 1819
points to get elected. Each vote carries a 100 points. NC’s Bal Bahadur Rai and Ram
Jeevan Singh both ended up with 1,700 points but were still elected because all the 17
votes were primary votes.
In this rather difficult voting system used in this election,
voters are allowed to cast their votes to a primary candidate and another secondary
candidates. If their primary choice is not elected then their points would go to their
second choice and if not to the third or the fourth.
Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) got their official candidate
Lok Bahadur Thapa elected with 1,882 points with the support from CPN-UML, as the two
parties had signed a pact.
CPN-UML could have easily used its surplus 12 votes to
support Leftist candidate like Santa Bahadur Nepali from the National People’s Front.
Instead the party surprisingly decided to throw its weight behind RPP.
NC’s Ashok Koirala, Akkal Bahadur Bista, Deepak Bahadur
Gurung, Bal Bahadur Rai, Radheshyam Adhikari and Ramjeevan Singh were declared winners
along with CPN-UML’s Mahesh Mani Acharya, Laxmi Das Manandhar and Mahesh Mani Acharya
Dixit.
NC’s Maiya Devi Shrestha, who had made headlines
donating her house to the party, was the only woman candidate for the one seat reserved
for women and was declared the winner.
Independent candidate Shanker Lal Kedia, RPP’s rebelling
member Jog Meher Shrestha and NPF’s Nepali all lost the election today.
On development regional front, CPN-UML won all the five
seats. In the Eastern Region Ram Prith Paswan, in the Central Region Lalit Kumar Basnet,
in the Western Region Shreemaya Thakali, in the Mid-Western Region Ranganath Joshi and in
the Far Western Region Urba Dutta Pant were declared the winners.
King Gyanendra, on the recommendations of the Cabinet, has
nominated industrialist Roop Jyoti, Yangkila Sherpa and Dipta Prakash Shah to the House.
He still has to nominate one more member.
With only 21 NC members in the 60-seat Upper House, the
government remains in a difficult position to get their proposals through and especially
at times like now when the opposition parties are totally against the government.
Last year, a Bill proposing to amend the Citizenship Act was
rejected by the Upper House and sent back to the Lower House again which was a major
humiliation for the government.
The Bill was later forwarded to the King for royal assent
again bypassing the Upper House as allowed by the Constitution. However, in the days to
follow, the government could still hit similar snags. Every two years, a third of the
total 60 members of the National Assembly, retire to be replaced by fresh members. The
tenure of each of the members is six years. There are 10 members nominated by the King.
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