Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: The government is preparing to hold by-elections to fill vacant seats in the House of Representatives and Provincial Assemblies and elections for National Assembly members whose terms will expire on March 4 next year.
Acting Chief Election Commissioner Ram Prasad Bhandari and other commissioners held consultations with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Friday.
During the meeting held at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, EC officials proposed to hold by-elections for the House of Representatives and Provincial Assembly by October. They also held discussions on the preparations for the National Assembly elections.
Of the 19 seats that are becoming vacant on March 4, elections will be held for 18. One seat will be filled through presidential nomination on the cabinet’s recommendation.
National Assembly member Bamdev Gautam, who was nominated to the position by the President, is among the 19 National Assembly members completing his term on March 4. The remaining 18 seats will go to elections.
Eight members from CPN-UML, seven from the CPN (Maoist Center), and one each from the CPN (Unified Socialist), Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) and Loktantrik Samajbadi Party (LSP) are completing their terms in March.
Indira Gautam (Women’s Group), Gopal Bhattarai (Others Group), Tulsa Kumari Dahal (Women’s Group), Devendra Dahal (Others Group), Bhagwati Neupane (Women’s Group), Bimala Ghimire (Women’s Group), Sharada Devi Bhatta (Women’s Group) and Sumitra BC (Women’s Group) from UML are completing their terms on March 4 next year.
From the Maoist Center, Gopi Bahadur Sarki (Dalit Group), Ganga Kumari Belbase (Women’s Group), Jag Prasad Sharma (Persons with Disabilities or Minority Group), Taraman Swar (Others Group), Narayan Kaji Shrestha (Others Group), Maya Prasad Sharma (Others Group), and Radhe Shyam Paswan (Dalit Group) are completing their terms.
Other members of the upper house completing their term on March 4 include Dr Beduram Bhusal from the CPN (Unified Socialist), Mrigendra Kumar Singh Yadav from Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) Nepal and Shekhar Kumar Singh from Loktantrik Samajbadi Nepal (LSP).
The National Assembly has 59 members – eight elected from each of the seven provinces and three nominated by the President on the recommendation of the cabinet. National Assembly members serve staggered six-year terms with one-third of members completing their term every two years.
National Assembly members are elected by an electoral college consisting of members of the provincial assembly, and chairpersons/mayors and vice-chairpersons/deputy mayors of of local units within a province. While provincial assembly members have a vote weight of 48, local government officials have a vote weight of 18 each.
