Himal Press 
UML leaders at the office of CPN (Unified Socialist) on Thursday.
KATHMANDU: Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) are yet to decide which candidate to support in the presidential election. As a result, both presidential candidates, Ramchandra Paudel of Nepali Congress (NC) and Subash Chandra Nembang of CPN-UML, are trying actively to win their support.
Paudel is currently soliciting votes from within the eight-party coalition to ensure that their votes are not diverted to the UML candidate. The UML, however, is saying that parties including CPN (Maoist Center) will vote in their favor as it is a secret ballot.
While Nembang is engaging with voters, Paudel is busy in secret discussions and meetings. Both candidates are trying to gain the support of RSP and RPP. On Thursday, UML leaders visited the Bashundhara-based party office of RSP to solicit vote for Nembang.
Nembang asked RSP leaders to vote for him in the upcoming presidential election. However, RSP has not said officially who it will support for the presidency.
Although RPP has not yet decided whether it will participate in the presidential election, Nembang still met party president Rajendra Lingden and solicited his party’s support. Nembang, along with other party leaders, visited the RPP’s central office in Dhumbarahi and requested the party to support his candidacy. In tow were leaders like Prithvi Subba Gurung, Yogesh Kumar Bhattarai, Raghubir Mahaseth, Bidya Bhattarai, Ganesh Pahadi, and Thakur Gaire. RPP President Lingden and leaders Prakash Chandra Lohani, Rabindra Mishra, Dhaval Shamsher Rana, and others were also present in the meeting.
Although the party didn’t give any formal response to Nembang’s request, RPP leader Lohani stated that meeting was held in a cordial environment.
After the UML withdrew its support to Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government, the RPP also left the government, leading many to believe that the party will vote for UML’s candidate Nembang.
Second-rung leaders of UML are busy meeting leaders of parties which had already taken a formal decision to vote for Nembang’s opponent. They reached the office of CPN (Unified Socialist) in Aloknagar on Thursday and requested party leaders to vote for Nembang.
Unified Socialist was formed following split from UML in August, 2021.
The UML leaders had a cordial meeting with Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal, Vice Chairman Pramesh Hamal, General Secretary Beduram Bhusal, Deputy General Secretary Prakash Jwala, Jagannath Khatiwada, and Standing Committee member Ramchandra Jha.
“There is a unanimous agreement between us that we should use this opportunity amidst challenges to strengthen the unity between our two parties,” UML Deputy General Secretary Prithvi Subba Gurung, said after the meeting.
Following Gurung’s statement, Jagannath Khatiwada, the chief of Unified Socialist’s Publicity Department, also stated that the discussion was positive. He expressed pleasure that the UML leaders had come to their party office and engaged in discussions. “UML had made many remarks about our existence in the past,” said Khatiwada.
The cordial meeting between the UML and Unified Socialists leaders suggests that the relations between the two parties, which have been strained for a long time, are gradually improving. Although Unified Socialists did not make a decision to vote for Nembang, some speculate that the secret ballot may sway the leaders in favor of Nembang.
Political analyst Bishnu Dahal says, “Nembang’s speed is good, and it can divert few votes.”
Members of two houses of federal parliament -House of Representatives and National Assembly – and seven province assemblies are the voters in the presidential election. While members of federal member has 79 weighted vote, provincial assembly members have 48 weighted vote.
According to the Federal Parliament Secretariat, 334 members of federal parliament will vote for President and Vice President. They have a combined 26,386 weighted voted. Similarly, 550 members of province assemblies have a combined 26,400 weighted votes. The total weight votes of 884 members is 52,786.
In terms of weighted votes, NC’s Paudel is ahead in the presidential race because he has the support of eight parties – NC, CPN (Maoist Center), Unified Socialist, Janata Samajwadi Party, Loktantrik Samajbadi Party (LSP), Janamat Party, Nagarik Unmukti Party, Rastriya Jana Morcha. However, Nembang is trying to gain the support of other parties and independent lawmakers to close the gap.
In terms of total votes, NC and UML are closely matched, with the Maoist Center in the third place. The NC has a total weighted votes of 16,221, while the UML has 15,281. The Maoist Center has 7,728 weighted votes, while Unified Socialist has 2,478, JSP has 2,097, and RPP has 2,210 votes. RSP has 1,501 weighted votes. Similarly, Janmat has 1,242, LSP has 27 votes and Nagarik Unmukti has 765 weighted votes.
According to Article 62 (3) of the Constitution, a candidate must obtain at least 51% of the total votes, which amounts to 26,394 votes, to win the election. Nembang’s strategy is to prevent the other candidate from obtaining 50% of the votes in the first stage, even if he cannot achieve this himself. For this, he may ask voters, who have decided to vote for the opposition candidate, not to vote for him.
If no candidate wins a majority in the first stage, candidate getting highest number of votes in the next stage will be declared winner.
Nembang, who is trying to adopt all kinds of strategies and bring election results in his favor, is also raising the issue of ethnicity. Paudel belongs to Khas Arya community, while Nembang is from an indigenous community.
