The Rashtriya Swatantra Party (RSP), affiliated with former Kathmandu mayor and rapper Balendra Shah, has maintained its huge lead in the vote counting. The party is likely to win with a huge majority in the parliamentary elections held on Thursday as it is already leading on 98 seats, out of which the results of victory on 19 seats have been officially declared.
According to the Election Commission, counting of votes is underway in 135 of the 165 constituencies falling under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) category as of Saturday morning.
Balen’s RSP is leading in the vote counting as it has won 19 seats out of the 27 constituencies where vote counting has already been completed under the FPTP.
Due to various reasons, counting of votes has not yet started in three constituencies.
As of 8am (NST), Balen’s RSP has emerged victorious on 19 seats, while maintaining its lead on 98 seats.
Nepali Congress is in second place with four wins and leading on 11 seats, while KP Sharma Oli-led CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal – Unified Marxist Leninist) has won one seat so far and maintained its lead on 11 seats.
Nepali Communist Party (NCP) has so far won one seat, while it is maintaining its lead on 11 seats.
In Jhapa-5, Balendra Shah (Balen) is ahead of his rival KP Sharma Oli by almost four times more votes. According to the Election Commission (as of 8 am), Shah has got 34,863 votes while Oli is trailing with 9,068 votes.
In Sarlahi-4, Nepali Congress President Gagan Kumar Thapa is trailing behind RSP’s Amreshkumar Singh. As per the latest vote count, Singh has got 11,383 votes while Thapa is trailing him with 6,952 votes.
A total of 68 parties are in the fray in the elections held on March 5, of which 3,406 candidates are contesting under the FPTP and 1,270 candidates are contesting under the Proportional Representation (PR) category.
There are a total of 110 seats under the PR category for which voters voted separately on March 5. To form a single-party government, 138 of the existing 275 seats in the lower house are required.
With the counting of votes continuing mainly for the FPTP category, Ballen is expected to cross the RSP’s simple majority mark.
However, party vice-president Dol Prasad Aryal, in an interview to ANI on Friday, claimed that the party will get a full two-thirds majority.
“One hundred and eighty-six. Yes, overall we are expecting one hundred and eighty-six seats,” Aryal told ANI as he emerged from a counting center on the outskirts of Kathmandu on Friday afternoon when asked about his probable victory tally.
Any political party will need 186 seats to get a two-thirds majority.