BY THE CHIEF EDITOR
As the results of the 2022 General Election to elect members of the 15th Lok Sabha or the 15th House of the People, began to pour in the early hours of 7th November, Monday as the nation continued to mourn the sudden demise of Purvanchali royal Prince Alok.
The results of the scrutiny of nominations had already indicated that the National People's Congress (NPC), the most dominating party ever in the nation's partisan history, is all set to return to power as ten of its candidates had already been elected unopposed to the Lok Sabha. Though, the Congress was short of only one seat to have a comfortable majority, the party leadership remained mum from commenting on matter related to its future ambitions and asked all to await till 7 Nov (the day of result announcement).
Meanwhile, the newly formed self-proclaimed chief opposition party, the Vishwamitran National Party (VNP) was able to secure two seats in the house as NPC candidates Rafe Burfield and W. Pranit Singh withdrew their nominations from the second seat as they were already elected to the house. As of result, two VNP candidates - Therence Raphael Pagsisihan and Reuben Perz were elected to the house. On the other hand, two independent candidates - Arsal Abbas Mirza and outgoing speaker Tyler Mullins were also elected unopposed to the parliament. Mirza, who served as a minister of state in the outgoing government of Prime Minister Farhaz Hazarika had already announced his support to the NPC while Mullins is yet to announce his support for either parties despite eyeing to serve a second term as the speaker of the house.
In the wee hours of 7 November local time, the results started to be announced. Elections were held to remaining six seats in three phases. In the Rajagriha parliamentary constituency in Purvanchal, the NPC nominated former acting prime minister Prince Abhiraj as its candidate while the VNP chose minister Kevin Doan as its candidate. Abhiraj represented the Basant Bahar constituency in the 14th Lok Sabha while Doan represented National Capital Constituency. As the results poured in, it was Prince Abhiraj of the NPC who defeated Kevin Doan by a handsome majority. Abhiraj received 15 votes (68.2%) while Doan only bagged 7 votes (31.8%). In Boragaon constituency of Purvanchal, it was VNP nominee Devin Purcell who defeated Fardeen Hazarika of NPC by a short margin. Purcell received 12 votes (54.5%) while Hazarika received 10 votes (45.5%). Fardeen Hazarika is the brother of Prime Minister Farhaz Hazarika.
The most shocking result came from Kalapani which was a VNP home turf as its leader Rory McPhail won consecutively twice from the seat and was expecting to win a third term. However, this bid was challenged by NPC president Arthur Lacey-Scott who had already been elected to the house from Maligaon but still wished to contest McPhail's third term in office. Lacey-Scott handsomely defeated sitting MP McPhail winning 63.6% (14 votes) while McPhail only served 36.4% of the votes (8). His defeat was definitely a shock for the VNP which campaigned very strongly challenging NPC's long and prosperous rule calling it "undemocratic" and "against the will of the people".
Controversial former prime minister Ștefan Marius Snagoveanu who contested election from Brikshasthana constituency of Beltola on a VNP candidate defeated NPC nominee Preetam Kapei winning 60% of the votes, while Kapei only received 40% of the votes. The NPC also suffered a defeat in Radisson constituency where National Development minister Arnab Deka was defeated by VNP candidate Dr. Toyotomi Tatsumi who received 55.6% of the votes while Deka only received 44.4% of the votes.
In Dhirenpara constituency of Madhya Prant where the NPC had lost thrice consecutively since 2020, NPC candidate Johannes Mattias Toome defeated VNP candidate Juan Cisneros by a majority. Toome received 62.5% of the votes while Cisneros only received 37.5% of the votes.
The National People's Congress won 13 of the 20 seats and continued its dominance over the politics of the nation however it failed to repeat its performance during the general election last year when it won 17 of the 20 seats. The opposition, Vishwamitran National Party secured 5 seats despite the loses of two of its leaders and sitting MPs - Rory McPhail and Kevin Doan. The parliament is expected to be opened soon by Rashtradhyaksh Dhrubajyoti Roy to allow members to take oath or make an affirmation and later elect the speaker and deputy speaker after which the prime minister will be chosen by the members and then appointed by the Rashtradhyaksh. Farhaz Hazarika is expected to get an unprecedent third consecutive term in office while Arthur Lacey-Scott is expected to continue as parliamentary and law minister and take up role as the leader of the house. The VNP, on the other hand, is expected to nominate its floor leaders very soon.
Lacey-Scott who won from two seats is expected to resign from his first seat, Maligaon and continue to represent Kalapani seat.