Female politicians in Okhaldhunga have criticised their parties for not fielding enough female candidates in the local level elections scheduled for May 14. 

Most of the parties in the district have picked male candidates for major posts, bar nomination of Champa Karki as the chairperson of Sunkoshi Village Council for CPN (Maoist Centre). In other parts of the district,the parties, including the Maoist Centre, have fielded male nominees. Okhaldhunga has one municipality and seven village councils.

Sabita Rai, the district leader of Nepali Congress (NC), said the discrimination against women in candidate nomination process was across the board. All political parties have picked male candidates, though their female counterparts were equally competent, she claimed. 

CPN-UML leader Urmila Khatiwada echoed Rai’s sentiment. 

The leaderships from all political parties have shut out women from holding important posts at the local levels, she said.

Khatiwada added that even the posts for deputy mayor and vice-chairpersons were allotted based on favouritism and nepotism.

Few Dalit women candidates in Manang

Though the constitution has allocated a quota for a Dalit woman representative in each ward of the local units, there are zero candidates of the profile in some northern villages of Manang. The political parties have claimed that they could not find Dalit women representatives in these villages. In all of Manang, 28 seats have been allocated for Dalit women representatives, but the parties have fielded only 17. 

According to the District Election Office, there are zero Dalit women candidates in wards 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of  Narphu Village Council; wards 1,2,7,8 and 9 of Nesyang Village Council; wards 1 and 5 of Chame Village Council; and wards 2, 3, 5,6 and 7 of Nasong Village Council.