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NC DISTRICT CONVENTION
- Sushil faction takes the lead
KATHMANDU, AUG 12 -
Initial results pouring in from Nepali Congress District Convention on Thursday show the establishment faction led by Acting President Sushil Koirala leading in the race with six (and counting) of its supporters winning the district presidency. The other four (and counting) districts have elected leaders supporting the faction led by Sher Bahadur Deuba as presidents. The party will gradually hold conventions in all other districts, where elections were cancelled, from Friday.
Elections in Lalitpur selected Deuba-supporter Madan Bahadur Amatya as the president of the party’s district committee. In Kathmandu, the election could not elect any one and the party has scheduled to hold a run-off election on Friday. In Bhaktapur, the election was postponed earlier. The party has already conducted conventions in 19 districts, while four of them elected Deuba supporters as the presidents.
Though the party had planned to hold elections in around 54 districts on Thursday, around 10 districts announced results as the Post went to press.
About seven districts cancelled it due to controversies and other reasons, 10 districts went for run-off polls, around the same number of districts were likely to announce results late in the night, while the rest of planned to announce the results after completing the vote count.
Though these district conventions are a run-up to the party’s 12th NC General Convention (GC) slated for Sept. 17-21, they do not add to the voters’ number (around 3,000) in the General Convention. The final district results, however, indicate which faction is likely to dominate the GC.
Party insiders observe that unlike in earlier conventions, the overall results of this year’s pre-convention polls, especially in the constituency-level, also reveal a new trend—growing share of “swing voters” comprising an inclusive group dominated by the youth.
This means they may “disrupt” the usual trend of voting exclusively along certain panels or factions “at least when it comes to selecting the 61 CWC members.”
“The new and young faces elected as representatives to the General Convention may vote for either Sushil or Deuba in the president’s post, but they will not stick to one panel while selecting the rest of the other 61 CWC members. This means there are greater chances of the party getting new and younger faces at the central level,” said NC youth leader Gagan Thapa.
NC leaders say a significant number of GC representatives (2,880) elected by earlier constituency-level elections are “unpredictable”. “They are independent and not the pocket voters of either Deuba or Sushil or any other candidate,” NC’s youth leader Ang Gelu Sherpa said.
Elected presidents
Bhojpur Bal Krishna Thapa (Sushil)
Chitwan Bikash Koirala (Sushil)
Tanahun Dhruba Wagley (Sushil)
Banke Dr. Arun Koirala (Sushil)
Bardiya Sanjaya Gautam (Sushil)
Surkhet Tapta Bahadur Bista (Sushil)
Dadeldhura Karna Bahadur Malla (Deuba)
Kanchanpur Bahadur Singh Thapa (Deuba)
Lalitpur Madan Amatya (Deuba)
Syangja Kamal Pangeni (Deuba)
Vote tally
Sushil Faction 14 (earlier) + 6 (Thursday)
Deuba Faction 4 (earlier) + 4 (Thursday)
Independent 01
Posted on: 2010-08-13 07:32
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