Kathmandu, June 27: Elections for 15 vacant seats of the National Assembly are being held Wednesday. Ten candidates are being elected by 205 members of the powerful House of Representatives and the remaining five are being elected by representatives of five development regions.
The ruling Nepali Congress party has fielded six candidates; the main opposition in parliament, the Nepal Communist party (Unified Marxist Leninist) has presented three candidates; Maiya Devi Shrestha (NC) has already been elected unopposed from the House of Representatives to the upper chamber.
Lok Bahadur Thapa, the official candidate of the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) is being challenged by a rebel Jog Meher Shrestha, threatening the unity and the chance of the third largest party in the legislature to gain a seat in the Assembly.
The UML decided to support Thapa in exchange for RPP support to its candidates in the five regions. The Nepali Congress is supporting Shrestha and another RPP rebel in the development regions. The election of the NC and UML candidates are assured from the House of Representatives.
King Gyanendra will nominate four royal members whose terms have also expired this week. The term of one third members of the 60 member Assembly, a permanent body, expires once every two years. Analysts expect the UML to gain a majority in the upper chamber after Wednesday’s vote.