Kathmandu: The Nepali Congress is in the top position in the counting of votes underway on Sunday in the House of Representatives (HoR) and Province Assembly (PA) elections held on November 20.
Counting of votes in three election constituencies is yet to begin due to dispute while vote counting in remaining seven constituencies are underway, according to the Election Commission of Nepal.
This is the second federal and provincial elections in Nepal after the promulgation of the constitution in 2015, September.
According to the Election Commission, the results of the vote counting of 155 out of the 165 electoral constituencies under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) category have been announced by Sunday morning. Similarly, vote counting is underway for elections under proportional representation. Out of 275 seats for federal assembly, 165 members of parliament are elected under FPTP while 110 lawmakers will be elected under proportional representation. Similarly, elections were conducted for unicameral provincial assemblies for all seven provinces.
There are 550 provincial seats in all of seven provinces of Nepal, of which 330 (60 per cent) will be elected through first past the post and 220 (40 per cent) of seats will be elected through proportional representation.
The Nepali Congress tops the vote-count, securing 52 seats, the CPN (UML) 41 seats, the CPN (Maoist Centre) 17 seats, the CPN (Unified Socialist) 10 seats, and the Rastriya Swatantra Party and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party seven seats each.
With the election results near to complete, no political party is going to gain the majority in the election. After failing to gain majority by one single political party, the present ruling alliance of five political parties started government formation talks from Saturday.
Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Center), CPN ( Unified Socalist), Rastriya Janamorcha and Loktantrik Samajbdi Party are under the alliance of the present ruling coalition led by Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba.
Another alliance is led by CPN-UML that is far from securing the majority. On Saturday, Prime Minister Deuba and Chairman of the Maoist Center Pushpa Kamal Dahal met and discussed ways to give continuity to the present coalition. Both leaders also agreed to expedite talks within and outside of the coalition to form the government.
Likewise, the Janata Samajbadi Party has won five seats, the Lokatantrik Samajbadi Party four seats, the Nagarik Unmukti Party three seats and the independents five seats under the FPTP category of the HoR election so far.
The Nepal Workers and Peasants Party, the Janamat Party and the Rastriya Janamorcha have won one HoR seat each under the FPTP category.
The Election Commission stated that the vote count results of 10 electoral constituencies are still awaited.
The delay in announcing the results in these constituencies is because of the delayed vote counting in some constituencies and counting not starting at all at remaining constituencies.
The vote counting is in progress in seven constituencies. Nepali Congress is leading the vote-count tally in four, the UML in two and the Rastriya Swatantra Party in one out of these.
(IANS)
