2023 Tanahun–1 by-election
Nepali House of Representatives election
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The 2023 Tanahun–1 by-election was held in the Tanahun 1 constituency of Nepal on 23 April 2023.[2][3] The by-election was held as the result of the vacation of the seat by the sitting member, Ram Chandra Poudel, who was elected president on 9 March 2023.[4] It was held alongside by-elections in Chitwan 2 and Bara 2.[5]
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23 April 2023
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Constituency of Tanahun 1 in the House of Representatives | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 53%[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Tanahun 1 in Gandaki Province | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Rastriya Swatantra Party's Swarnim Wagle, who had left the Nepali Congress a few weeks prior to the by-election citing differences with the party leadership, won the by-election securing over 54 percent of the votes cast.[6][7][8]
Background
First elected from Tanahun 1 in 1991, Poudel switched seats in 1994 and was thereafter elected consecutively to parliament from Tanahun 2. He served as the Speaker of the Pratinidhi Sabha from 1994 to 1999, and was deputy prime minister and minister for Home Affairs from 2000 to 2002.
Having decided to switch back to Tanahun 1 in 2017, he was defeated by Krishna Kumar Shrestha of the CPN (UML).[9] Shrestha joined the CPN (Unified Socialist) when the party was formed, and vacated the seat for Poudel in the 2022 election, himself moving to Bara 4.[10][11]
Poudel was the candidate from Nepali Congress and its 10-party alliance for the 2023 presidential election, and was elected president on 9 March 2023, defeating former speaker Subas Chandra Nemwang of the CPN (UML).[12][13] He resigned as member of Parliament before assuming office as president on 13 March 2023.[14][15]
2022 election result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ram Chandra Poudel | Nepali Congress | 25,361 | 40.45 | |
| Ek Bahadur Rana Magar | CPN (UML) | 19,981 | 31.87 | |
| Govinda Raj Joshi | Independent | 6,886 | 10.98 | |
| Bikas Sigdel | Rastriya Swatantra Party | 6,044 | 9.64 | |
| Binod Kumar Gharti | Rastriya Prajatantra Party | 2,484 | 3.96 | |
| Others | 1,939 | 3.09 | ||
| Total | 62,695 | 100.00 | ||
| Majority | 5,380 | |||
| Nepali Congress gain | ||||
| Source: ECN[16] | ||||
Result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | +/– | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swarnim Wagle | Rastriya Swatantra Party | 34,919 | 54.57 | +44.93 | |
| Govinda Bhattarai | Nepali Congress | 20,122 | 31.45 | −9.00 | |
| Sarbendra Khanal | CPN (UML) | 8,488 | 13.27 | −18.6 | |
| Others | 456 | 0.71 | −17.32 | ||
| Total | 63,985 | 100.00 | – | ||
| Majority | 14,797 | ||||
| Rastriya Swatantra Party gain | |||||
| Source: ECN[17] | |||||