The local election was rescheduled due to disputes among political parties

BAJURA, JUNE 16

Bajura's Budhiganga Municipality, where the Election Commission had decided to hold reelection due to disputes among political parties, is slated to elect its representatives next month.

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According to Chief District Officer Chandra Adhikari, re-election in Budhiganga will be held on July 7 as per the decision taken by an all-party meeting.

Today, a meeting was held at the District Administration Office among the representatives of political parties such as the CPN-UML, Nepali Congress, CPN-MC, CPN-Unified Socialist, chief election officer, CDO and chiefs of security agencies.

The date of the re-election was fixed at the same meeting today. Meanwhile, today's was the fifth meeting held for fixing the re-election date.

Regarding the May 13 election, the Election Commission had decided to hold re-election in Budhiganga Municipality on account of disputes. There had been disputes in six of the 10 wards of the municipality. According to locals, election couldn't be fair in Wards 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9.

While the polling stations in wards 2, 3, 5, and 9 were controlled by UML cadres, NC cadres had seized polling stations in wards 4 and 7. There were also incidents of clashes, beatings and chasing of voters.

Earlier, a team led by Election Commissioner Sagun Shamsher JBR had conducted a field study on the election-related dispute. Though the team had recommended a vote count, the Election Commission had decided to hold re-election in the local level.

Meanwhile, a writ filed by CPN-UML seeking a vote count in the local level is sub-judice at Dipayal High Court now.

At a time when election representatives have taken office and started working elsewhere, lack of elected local representatives for so long has affected service delivery here. On top of that, there is also confusion as to what to do regarding the provision for local levels to mandatorily unveil their budget on June 24.

A version of this article appears in the print on June 17, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.