POKHARA, May 3: The ambience was peaceful though equally thrilling. The filling of candidacy for the first phase of local level polls on Tuesday in all the districts of Province-4 was overwhelming.
Since early morning till evening, the registration process quite hooked the public and nominees at the venues. Huge procession with musical bands had reached the venues for the registration.
Filling of nomination for provinces 3,4 and 6 had begun at 10 am and concluded at 5 pm. Nominations for the post of mayor, deputy mayor, ward chairman and ward members were accepted by the election commission.
“It was much more exciting than expected. Political party leaders, cadres, general public, all had participated overwhelmingly,” said Nagendra Lal Karna, chief election commissioner of Kaski. “Everyone was happy and spirited,” he added.
Province-4 has a single metropolitan city, 26 municipalities and 58 rural municipalities.
Karna said that the nominations were filed at parts of Nawalparasi district and 10 districts of Gandaki and Dhaualagiri zones.
“The huge presence of the mass and the enthusiasm seen among those associated with the political parties must be due to the long gap in holding the local polls. We had the local level elections nearly 20 years ago, it's a historical moment,” he said.
From Nepali Congress, Ramkaji Kunwar has filed nomination for the post of mayor of Pokhara Metropolitan city. Nepali Congress had chosen him among a number of aspirants for the post. Similarly, Saraswati Gurung has filed nomination for the post of deputy mayor.
From CPN-UML, Man Bahadur GC and Manju Gurung were nominated for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor respectively.
CPN (Maoists unified) picked Bishwo Prakash Lamichhane for the mayor's post and Goma Dhakal as deputy mayor.
Nominees from RPP and Akhanda Party, among others had also filed nominations for several posts.
The EC has stated that candidates belonging to marginalized groups such as the poor, Dalits, women etc have been granted a waiver of 50 percent of the total charge to be paid while filing candidacy.
The Election Act requires that fifty percent of the total number of chiefs and deputy chiefs of the local bodies be women including forty percent of the total number of chiefs and deputy chiefs of the wards under these bodies.
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