Rajbiraj, May 28

Political parties in Siraha have intensified their election campaign, and are busy finalising candidates to contest in the second phase of local level elections slated for June 15.

The CPN-UML has almost finalised its candidates in nine municipalities and eight rural municipalities of the district, whereas Nepali Congress District President Dinesh Kumar Yadav said the party had received recommendations for mayoral, deputy mayoral, chair and vice-chair posts.

“The candidates’ name list will be finalised within two to three days,” he said. He added that the responsibility of finalising local representatives would go to the district and central committees only if the task could not be done at the local level.

District in-charge of the CPN-Maoist Centre Asarphi Sada said his party was holding discussions at the local level to choose the best candidates.

Likewise, Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal has also been preparing to finalise its candidates. FSF-N Chair Dinesh Yadav said the name list would be finalised within two days.

The Election Office has already deployed volunteers in 461 voting centres and has been launching voter education programmes in the district.

Chief at the election office Mahesh Thakur said the office was preparing in such a way that the voters would not have any confusion while casting their ballot.

The office of chief election officer had come into operation on May 20 in the district. Thakur said that election offices will be established in 16 other local units on May 29.

Meanwhile, Rastriya Janata Party Nepal has decided to not to participate in the polls. The party’s district coordinator Sunil Kumar Jha said there was no point in participating in the elections as the government had not addressed their demands. He added that his party had announced various protest programmes against the second phase of civic polls.