DAMAK: The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) has won the Mayor in Damak municipality, Jhapa district in the May 13 local election. RPP candidate Ram Kumar Thapa has been elected the mayor with 17,525 votes while his nearest contender Gita Kumari Poudel Adhikari of the CPN (UML) got 17,072 votes. Adhikari was elected the deputy mayor in the local election in 2017.
Regina Bhattarai of the Nepali Congress has been elected the deputy mayor securing 16,966 votes as against her closest competitor Ambika Prasad Khanal of the CPN (UML) who got 16,574 votes.
The total number of voters is 58,176 and the voter turnout on May 13 elections was 39,895.
The UML has won the ward chair post at ward number 1,2,3,5,6,8 and 9, the Nepali Congress in ward number 4 and 10 and the RPP in ward number 7.
RPP’s Thapa was the common candidate from the six-party alliance in Damak municipality.
The result was termed as a blow to CPN UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli. Damak is the hometown of Chair Oli.
Previously, the CPN UML used to be the victorious in Damak municipality elections.
Likewise, Ajaya Thapa of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) has been elected the mayor and Shiva Kumari Tharu of the CPN (UML) deputy mayor of Shivaraj municipality in Kapilbastu district.
Thapa secured 7,602 votes while Tharu got 7,955 votes. The CPN (UML) had won the mayor and deputy mayor posts in the local level elections in 2017 before this.
The Nepali Congress has won the ward chair in three wards, the UML in three wards, the Maoist Center and the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party two each and the Janata Samajbadi Party in one ward of the municipality.
