KATHMANDU- Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya held discussions with Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka over the issue of the by-election to be held for 25 various posts that have fallen vacant.

During the meeting held at the Ministry of Defence in Singha Durbar Thapaliya and Khadka discussed the recently conducted National Assembly election and the upcoming by-election, according to the DPM’s Secretariat.There is a constitutional provision under which the Election Commission can consult with the government regarding the election to the Member of the House of Representatives and the Province Assembly as well as the by-election for the vacant posts in the local levels.The EC has already suggested to the government to hold the by-election within mid-May this year. It is conducting the election to fill up the posts that have fallen vacant due to various reasons.

The by-election will be held in Ilam constituency-2 for one member of the House of Representatives and in Bajhang constituency-1 for a member of the Sudur Paschim Province Assembly. The Ilam constituency-2 seat had fallen vacant following the death of Subas Chandra Nembang . Nembang was elected to the House of Representatives from the CPN-UML . Meanwhile, the Sudur Paschim Provincial Assembly seat of Bajhang constituency-1 had fallen vacant after the death of Nepali Congress Province Assembly member Prithvi Bahadur Singh in a road accident.

The EC stated that currently 25 posts have fallen vacant, including one in the House of Representatives, one in the Sudur Paschim Province Assembly, two chiefs of the District Coordination Committee, one deputy-mayor of a municipality, one chair of a rural municipality, two vice-chairs of rural municipalities and 17 ward chairs of various local levels.