Voting in by-elections for 41 vacant local level positions concluded peacefully on Sunday. Polling began at 7 am and continued until 5 pm.

Counting of votes has already begun in several local units.

Although there were 44 vacant positions, three were filled unopposed before the elections.

By-elections were held in 32 districts across all seven provinces. According to the Election Commission, around 62 percent of the 226,792 registered voters cast their ballots. “The voter percentage might slightly change once the final data is compiled,” Nita Pokharel Aryal, spokesperson for the Election Commission, told the Post.

Elections were held for one mayor, one deputy mayor, and 33 ward chairs, among others. A total of 377 candidates contested these positions. The Election Commission said it aims to complete the counting of votes within two days while it will publish updates on its website.

The commission said votes for chair positions in 15 wards, which have only one polling station each, will be counted at respective polling stations. And for the remaining posts, vote counting will be conducted at the Election Commission office.

By the time this report was prepared, the final results of some by-polls had been announced. The Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party candidate won the post of chairperson in ward 4 of Tilagupha Municipality in Kalikot. According to the Election Commission website, the party’s Khadgaraj Shahi won the post with 143 votes, defeating Naishoba Shahi of the CPN (Maoist Centre), who garnered 115 votes. The post was earlier held by the Maoist Centre.

Likewise, Nepali Congress candidate Dhan Singh Kunwar has won the post of chairman of ward 5 of Duhu Rural Municipality of Darchula. Congress candidate Kunwar secured 376 votes out of the 877 votes cast. His rival candidate Man Singh Badal only managed 358 votes.

Congress candidate Bhup Mani Pun Magar has won the post of chairman of ward 4 of Runtigadhi Rural Municipality of Rolpa. While Magar secured 643 votes, his immediate rival of UML Begam Pun only managed to get 535 votes.

Similarly, Congress candidate Khamba Bahadur Singh has won the post of ward 7 chairman in Kushe Rural Municipality of Jajarkot with a slim margin. Singh secured 347 votes while his Maoist Centre rival Gorakh Bahadur Nepali got 332 votes.

Likewise, UML candidate Ganga Bahadur Tamang has won the post of chairman of Molung Rural Municipality of Okhaldhunga. When Tamang garnered 399 votes, Congress candidate Ghanshyam Dahal secured 177 votes.

Vote counting for at least 20 of the 41 local level by-polls was set to begin on Sunday itself, according to the commission.

Election Commission spokesperson Aryal told the Post that counting of votes in Kathmandu and some other places will begin on Sunday.

In Kathmandu the by-polls were held in Kirtipur Municipality for the post of mayor and for ward chairs in ward 1 and 4. By-election was also held in ward 16 of Kathmandu Metropolitan City for the post of ward chair.

Although 25 political parties had registered for the local level by-elections, only 20 parties contested.

The Election Commission also said voter turnout was higher than expected. “During the local election in 2022, the voter turnout was 59 percent, and we had expected a similar percentage, but the turnout exceeded our expectations," said Durga Prasad Chalise, the deputy spokesperson of the Election Commission.

Despite the higher overall turnout, youth participation was lower than expected, especially in the Karnali and Sudurpaschim Provinces, Chalise said. He attributed the lower youth participation to their growing out-migration for employment.

“The commission has yet to analyse the voting trend,” Chalise told the Post.

Raghu Nath Adhikari, who observed Sunday’s voting in Kirtipur Municipality for the Informal Sector Service Centre-For Human Rights and Social Justice (Insec), also noticed lower youth participation.

“Among the seven booths I visited in Kirtipur Municipality, five had low participation of youths, while two had youths lining up to vote in considerable numbers,” Adhikari told the Post.

Among the total 31,112 registered voters in the Kirtipur Municipality almost 21,300 voters (or around 68 percent) cast their vote, as per the preliminary data of the Election Commission.

According to Insec’s preliminary observation report of the by-polls, the polling station in Paknajol, Kathmandu, was not disabled-friendly despite the commission’s earlier claims to the contrary.

Although the report mentioned some violations of the code of conduct during the election, no action was taken due to lack of complaints, according to Insec’s preliminary report.

Among those elected unopposed before the elections are Tek Raj Bhattarai in Kailali and Tika Kumari Chaudhary in Okhaldhunga of the Congress. They were elected to the district coordination committees. Similarly CPN (Maoist Centre) candidate Jagat Gharti was elected unopposed as chair of ward 2 of Putha Uttarganga Rural Municipality.