Nearly 90% Candidates Lose Deposits in Rautahat District House Election

With the final results of the recently concluded House of Representatives election, an interesting statistic has emerged from Rautahat District. Nearly 90 percent of the candidates who contested in the district’s four constituencies lost their election deposits.

According to the District Election Office in Rautahat, 128 out of 142 candidates failed to secure the minimum required votes to retain their deposits. Under the legal provision, candidates who fail to obtain at least 10 percent of the total valid votes lose their deposit, which is then transferred to the state treasury.

District Election Officer Chhotelal Das said that in Constituency No. 1, 34 out of 39 candidates lost their deposits. In Constituency No. 2, 23 of the 26 candidates lost their deposits, including candidates from CPN-UML and Janata Samajbadi Party, which has been viewed as significant.

Similarly, Constituency No. 3, which had the highest number of candidates (40), saw 37 candidates lose their deposits, including nominees from major parties such as Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, and Nepal Communist Party. In Constituency No. 4, 34 out of 37 candidates also failed to secure the required votes. Candidates from parties like CPN-UML, Janata Samajbadi Party, and Aam Janata Party were among those who lost their deposits.

The election office said that with Rs 10,000 deposited by each candidate, a total of Rs 1.28 million has been transferred to the government’s revenue account.

Only 14 candidates, including the winners, managed to secure enough votes to retain their deposits and can claim the amount back after completing the required procedures.

This data highlights the dominance of a few major candidates or parties in Rautahat’s electoral politics and the limited voter support for many independent and smaller-party candidates.