The Nepali Congress (NC)-led coalition was on Tuesday headed to a victory in the parliamentary elections, according to latest available data.
Nepal conducted elections to the Parliament's House of Representatives and legislative assemblies of seven provinces on Sunday. The counting votes began on Sunday evening and is continuing at the moment.
By Tuesday evening, the Nepali Congress-led coalition had won or was leading in nearly 70 seats, whereas the main Opposition Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) had won two seats and was leading on 40 seats.
This is in line with earlier predictions that had predicted that the NC-led coalition would return to power but that no single party would secure a clear majority.
Nepali elections 2022 fast facts
Nepal on Sunday recorded around 61 per cent voter turnout in elections to parliament and seven provincial assemblies.
More than 17.9 million voters were eligible to cast their votes to elect a 275-member House of Representatives and provincial assemblies.
Out of 275 Members of Parliament, 165 will be elected through direct voting, while the remaining 110 will be elected through a proportional electoral system. Similarly, out of a total of 550 members of the provincial assemblies, 330 will be elected directly and 220 will be elected through the proportional method.
Over 22,000 polling centres were set up for the November 20 elections in which 5,907 candidates were in the fray.
Rival coalitions in Nepal elections 2022
There are two major political alliances in the Nepal 2022 elections — the Nepali Congress (NC)-led democratic and leftist alliance and the CPN-UML-led leftist and pro-Hindu-pro-monarchy alliance.
The NC-led ruling alliance includes CPN-Maoist Centre, CPN-Unified Socialist, and Madhes-based Loktantrik Samajwadi Party, and the CPN-UML-led alliance includes pro-Hindu Rastriya Prajatantra Party and Madhes-based Janata Samajwadi Party.
Madhes is the term used to refer to the plains of Nepal, which has long complaint of being dominated by hill-based political elites.
The NC and the CPN-Maoist Centre of Prachanda were bitter rivals during the civil war as Prachanda was the leader of Maoist rebels. The Indian Express reports that a large number of 17,000 people killed during the civil war were NC cadres and current NC PM Deuba also survived a Communist ambush earlier. But now he is allied with his formal enemies. On the other hand, the Left is allied with monarchist parties which goes against conventional wisdom.
Nepal elections key candidates
According to Election Commission officials, the Nepali Congress opened its account in Kathmandu with senior NC leader Prakash Man Singh winning the Kathmandu 1 constituency. Singh secured 7,140 votes against his nearest rival Ravindra Mishra from the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) who secured 7,011 votes.
NC General Secretary Gagan Thapa won the House of Representatives election from Kathmandu Constituency No 4 by a margin of about 7,500 votes. He defeated Rajan Bhattarai of CPM-UML. While Thapa bagged 21,294 votes, Bhattarai got 13,853 votes.
Prime Minister and NC president Sher Bahadur Deuba is leading by 6,124 votes against his nearest contender Sagar Dhakal in Dadeldhura. Deuba has so far secured 13,126 votes, while independent candidate Dhakal garnered 7,002 votes.
NC also won a HoR seat in Manag district with Tek Bahadur Gurung winning the election by securing 2,547 votes against his nearest rival Palden Gurung of CPM-UML who secured 2,247 votes.
The party also won a HoR in Mustang constituency with Yogendra Thakali defeating Prem Prasad Tulachan of CPN-UML with a margin of 914 votes. Thakali got 3,992 votes, while Tulachan bagged 3,078 votes as per the final results.
Meanwhile, the main opposition CPN-UML bagged its first seat from Lalitpur-2 constituency where Prem Bahadur Maharjan defeated Sudin Shakya of Hamro Nepali Party by a margin of 6,139 votes. Maharjan bagged 15,025 votes, while his closest rival Shakya totalled 8,886 votes.
Krishna Gopal Shrestha of CPN-UML won the HoR seat from Kathmandu-9 constituency. He secured 11,956 votes against his nearest rival Tek Bahadur Pokharel of Rastriya Swotantra Party who secured 10,961 votes.
Meanwhile, CPN-Maoist chairman Pushpakamal Dahal “Prachanda” is leading in Gorkha-2 constituency. He has so far bagged 7,057 votes against his nearest rival Kavindra Burlakoti of RSP who got 1,929 votes.
Former prime minister and CPN-UML chairman leader K P Sharma Oli is leading in Jhapa 5 constituency with 15,510 votes against his nearest NC rival Khagendra Adhikari who so far secured 8,955 votes.
Nagarik Unmukti Party candidate Gangaram Chaudhary won the HoR election from Kailali-3 constituency. He got 23,120 votes, defeating Kundan Chaudhary of CPN-Maoist Centre who secured 17,749 votes.
According to Election Commission officials, CPN-Maoist Centre is leading in 14 HoR seats, Rastriya Swotantra Party in 11, CPN-Unified Socialist in 7, Rastriya Prajatantra Party in 6 and Nagarik Unmukti Party in 3 seats.
(With PTI inputs)
