Three women elected ward chairs in Syangja

By Arjun Kafle Syangja, May 22: Three women have been elected chairpersons of three different wards in Syangja.

Voters in the district, which has 97 wards belonging to 11 local levels, have elected women to lead Ward No. 2 of Kaligandaki Rural Municipality, Ward No. 3 of Biruwa Rural Municipality and Ward No. 6 of Chapakot Municipality. This however is a step back from the local elections of 2017 when, in addition to three ward chairs, a woman had also been elected mayor of Putalibazar Municipality.

A total of 10 women had stood for the chairpersonship of various wards in the district. Of them, Khagisara Ale emerged victorious in Kaligandaki–2. Ale belongs to the Nepali Congress (NC) which had received support from the Janamukti Party in May 13’s polls.

Ale defeated her closest rival, Shri Ram Pandey of the CPN (UML), by getting 1,333 votes, compared to Pandey’s 431.

Similarly, Man Kumari Thapa of CPN (Maoist Centre) has won in Biruwa–3. Thapa got elected with 495 votes while her rival UML candidate Santa Bahadur Ale got 418 votes.

Meanwhile, in Chapakot–6, NC’s Tara Devi Pokharel defeated her competitor independent Gyaneshwor Bastakoti by 21 votes.

In 2017, there were 16 women candidates in the district standing for the position of ward chairs and among them, Deukumari Gurung, Jitkumari Chapai and Keshmaya Thapa had won in Phedikhola Rural Municipality–5, Arjunchaupari Rural Municipality–4 and Harinas Rural Municipality–7 respectively. All three were from the UML.

Sima Kumari Chhetri had also been elected the mayor of Putalibazar back then. This time though, despite three women in the field vying for the post, a male candidate won.