DPA
Voting was underway in four Nepal districts yesterday to fill vacated legislative seats, authorities said.
The election commission said the by-election was being held in districts of Kathmandu, Chitwan, Bardiya and Kailali.
“Though a total of 251,304 voters had an opportunity to cast their votes, only 66% of them turned up at the election centres and voted for their respective candidates,” election commissioner Illa Sharma said.
The by-election began at 7am in Kathmandu-2, Kailali-6, Bardiya-1 and Chitwan-4 constituencies and lasted till 5pm.
Sharma said that only 60% voters cast their votes in Kathmandu-2 constituency while 73% in Chitwan-4, 74% in Bardiya-1 and 60% in Kailali-6.
Sharma said that the result of the by-election will be out by Monday morning. “The counting of the votes will start tonight and the result will be made public by tomorrow morning,” Sharma said.
Nepal voted in November to choose a second constituent assembly, after the first charter-writing body failed to draft a constitution within its deadline and was dissolved.
Seventy-six candidates from 60 political parties are in the fray for the election, including, 16 free candidates and nine women candidates.
The election commission had set up 327 voting centres for the by-election.
The voters in all four constituencies cast their votes using electronic voting system. This is the first time that such a large number of Nepalis used the computerised system for voting.
The Himalayan country went for by-election after four candidates who secured their seats in the constituent assembly from two constituencies each in the election on November 19 abandoned one constituency as per the norm of election commission.
Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, CPN-UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and UML leader Bamdev Gautam had won the second constituent assembly from two
constituencies.
There are 26 other seats that are also not yet filled in the 601-member assembly, due to delays in the nominating process.