Nepali Congress maintains lead over CPN-UML in polls

KATHMANDU: Nepali Congress, which emerged as the largest party under the direct voting system, today took a substantial lead in the proportional votes too by polling over 2.4 million ballots in the election to elect a new assembly.

The Nepali Congress headed by Sushil Koirala has secured 2.4 million votes out of the total 9.4 million votes counted so far.

CPN-UML headed by Jhalanath Khanal is in second place with 2.2 million votes while Prachanda-led UCPN-Maoist is in third place with 1.4 million votes.

Rastriya Prajatantra Party - Nepal, a pro-monarchist party which aims to make Nepal a Hindu state, is in fourth place with 616,500 votes.

Madhesi Peoples Rights Forum -Democratic and Rastriya Prajatantra Party have received 264,000 and 257,000 votes each, the Election Commission said.

With results of 239 out of 240 seats under the direct voting system announced, the Nepali Congress has bagged 105 seats followed by CPN-UML, which grabbed 91 seats.

UCPN-Maoist got third position with 25 seats and the remaining 18 seats went to Madhesi and fringe parties.

The counting of votes will lead to the formation of a 601-member Constituent Assembly, including 240 elected through direct voting. Proportionate voting will elect 335 members and the remaining 26 will be nominated by the government.

Under proportionate representation (PR) system, the entire country is considered as one election constituency and seats are allocated in proportion to the vote secured by respective political party. Altogether 10,709 candidates from 122 political parties are contesting under the PR system.

A party needs a total of 301 seats to get an absolute majority.