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From the Kathmandu Press: Monday, October 23, 2017

All major English and Nepali broadsheet dailies published from Kathmandu on Monday have given the utmost priority to the nominations filed by first-past-the-post candidates for upcoming provincial and federal parliamentary elections scheduled to be held in 74 provincial and 37 federal constituencies of 32 districts on November 26.

The papers have published stories focusing on ‘heavyweight’ candidates and likely interesting clashes during the polls.

Important

802 candidates for 111 seats

Nepali Congress leader Rajeev Bikram Shah files his nominations for the House of Representatives elections in Jajarkot, on Sunday, October 22, 2017.

The government-run Gorkhapatra says total 802 persons have filed candidacies for the elections including 320 for House of Representatives and 482 for provincial assemblies. The Election Commission has said the nominations concluded enthusiastically and peacefully, according to the paper.

Meanwhile, Kantipur lead story says this time the elections will largely become the clashes between two grand alliances: the democratic led by Nepali Congress and the leftist led by CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre. It informs that for 37 seats of House of Representatives, the democratic alliance has fielded 35 Congress leaders, one from Naya Shakti Party Nepal and one from Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Democratic. Likewise, the leftists have nominated 21 from the UML and 16 from the Maoists. For 74 provincial seats, 69 Congress and five leaders of other parties are in the fray for democratic alliance whereas among the leftists, there are 41 from the UML and 33 from the Maoists.

Other 128 federal and 256 provincial constituencies of remaining 45 districts will hold polls in the second phase on December 7. Nominations for these constituencies will be filed on November 2.

Rebel candidates trouble alliances

Political party cadres take out a rally as their candidates file nominations for upcoming federal and provincial parliamentary elections on October 22, 2017.

Though major political parties have formed alliances among like-minded forces at the central level and distributed election tickets accordingly, local party leaders in various districts have also independently filed nominations after their parties refused to provide them with the tickets, according to various newspapers.

Annapurna Post says many local leaders of the leftist alliance have expressed dissatisfaction over the names of official candidates. For example, UML’s Govinda Bikram Shahi has filed his candidacy against the official candidate of leftist alliance and Maoist leader Shakti Bahadur Basnet in the only constituency of Jajarkot district.

Meanwhile, three Maoist leaders in Ramechhap district have filed nominations against official candidates of the leftist alliance, according to Rajdhani. Likewise, Republica says Maoist cadres in Mugu district have announced that they will not vote for the UML candidate. They have also filed other independent candidacies.

The Rajdhani report informs that a local Nepali Congress leader has filed candidacy against the party’s official candidate in a provincial constituency in Okhaldhunga district.

Ignored

Rs 300 million ‘stolen’ from NIC Asia Bank during Tihar vacation

Nepal Samacharpatra and The Kathmandu Post have reported today that around Rs 300 million with the NIC Asia Bank was stolen during the Tihar vacation as unidentified cyber criminals hacked the SWIFT system. Whereas The Kathmandu Post report does not specify the amount, Nepal Samacharpatra says the bank officials found that the bank’s balance was reduced by Rs 300 million from the day of Laxmi Puja (Thursday) to Sunday.

The Kathmandu Post says the central bank of the country has confirmed the reported cyber theft and quotes Nepal Rastra Bank Deputy Spokesperson Rajendra Pandit as saying, “We, however, have not been able to confirm the amount of money that has been illegally transferred through multiple small transactions via SWIFT.” Bankers on the condition of anonymity have told the paper that the attack closely resembles the “biggest ever cyber heist” that took place in Bangladesh in May 2016.

Meanwhile, Central Investigation Bureau and Metropolitan Crime Division of Nepal Police have launched separate probes into the case, according to Nepal Samacharpatra.

Interesting

Local governments begin justice delivery as per new law

Gorkhapatra‘s anchor story for the day informs that the new Local Government Operation Act has come into effect and the local governments have begun carrying out judicial functions as well after the constitution delegated rights of three state organs—executive, legislative and judiciary—to local bodies,

The report says all 753 local bodies including metropolitan cities, sub-metropolitan cities, municipalities and rural municipalities have formed Justice Committee headed by deputy mayors or vice-chairpersons, which are responsible to settle local disputes including those related to labour and wage, disappearance of cattle and pets, care to be provided to elderly citizens and children and border between two individual lands.

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