Kathmandu November 26

Two wards of Rolpa district’s Thawang Rural Municipality that are infamous for boycotting elections in the past saw substantial turnout in the first phase of provincial and parliamentary elections today.

No voter in these wards had turned up to cast vote during the 2013 Constituent Assembly elections. This time too, Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal had threatened voters of Wards No 1 and 2 of Thawang Rural Municipality with dire consequence if they exercised their right to vote.

However, voter turnout was 30 per cent in the rural municipality.

According to Bodharaj Regmi, inspector, Area Police Station, Thawang, out of 6,800 voters of Thawang Rural Municipality, 2,501 (36 per cent) cast their votes today.

Out of 2,772 voters of Wards No 1 and 2 of Thawang Rural Municipality, 822 voters (276 voters of Ward No 1 and 546 voters of Ward No 2) cast their votes. This works out to be 29.65 per cent of the votes cast in the two wards.

CPN local leader Harka Bahadur Budha, who contested as independent candidate, was elected chair of Thawang Rural Municipality’s Ward No 1, while CPN-MC local leader Basanta Roka was elected chair of Ward No 2.

Ward No 3 of Thawang Rural Municipality saw 932 votes cast, Ward No 4 saw 345 cast and 402   votes were cast in Ward No 5.

Inspector Regmi was all praise for voters of Thawang who ignored CPN’s terror tactics and came out to vote.

According to CPN-Maoist Centre Thawang Rural Municipality  chief Rishikeshav Budha Magar, CPN cadres tried to stop voters at Kherawang, Phuntiwang of Ward No 1 and Phuliwang and Chhewang of Ward No 2. “They prevented voters from going to polling stations,” Budha Magar told THT over phone from Rolpa. “They even blasted bombs and fired shots in the air to intimidate voters,” he said.

According to Chief District Officer Dijan Bhattarai, 56 per cent votes were cast in Rolpa in a peaceful manner.

Wards No 1 and 2 of Thawang Rural Municipality had boycotted the 2013 Constituent Assembly elections. In 1997 local polls, only four voters cast their votes in the two wards.