An alliance of Communist parties was on course on Saturday to win Nepal’s first election to the provincial and federal assemblies, The Kathmandu Post reported.
This is the first general election in Nepal after the new Constitution was implemented in 2015. In the Federal Parliament, 165 seats are directly elected while 110 are allocated to parties based on proportional representation.
While the counting of votes is still underway across the country, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), as of 5 pm Indian Standard Time, has won 25 seats and leading in 56 in the parliamentary elections. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) is second with 12 victories and a lead in 21 seats.
The results have come as a shock to the ruling Nepali Congress, which has won only six seats till now. Several major party leaders lost the election in their constituencies, including Minister for Information and Communication Mohan Basnet. If the current trend continues, the party will suffer its worst electoral defeat in parliamentary polls since 1990, The Kathmandu Post reported.
The alliance of the Left parties also outperformed the Nepali Congress – which traditionally has had close ties with India – in the Provincial Assembly election. The alliance is doing so well was because their votes were not divided as was the case in past elections, Sudheer Sharma, the editor of Kantipur newspaper, was quoted as saying by AP.
In Nepal’s Province No 2, which is close to the Indian border, the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum and the Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal, two Madhesi-based parties, were leading in seven seats each while the Nepali Congress was leading in nine.
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