PANCHTHAR: Vote counting is moving ahead sluggishly in Panchthar which had gone to the parliamentary and provincial elections in the first phase on November 26.

Vote counting had begun at 5:00 pm on Thursday, but only one-third of the cast votes have so far been counted. Of the total 77,803 votes cast in parliamentary election, only 29,516 votes have so far been counted.

Political party representatives and chief district election officer have agreed to first complete counting of parliamentary election votes and then move on to provincial assembly votes. So the counting of provincial assembly election votes is yet to begin.

The number of invalid votes is also significant in the district, with 2,303 votes (around 9 percent of the total counted votes) declared invalid so far.

In the only parliamentary constituency of the district, CPN-UML's Basanta Kumar Nembang, representing the left alliance, is leading with 14,425 votes, while his closest contender the Nepali Congress' Bhishma Raj Angdambe has secured 10,775 votes. Federal Limbuwan Forum's Sagar Kerung is in the third position with 568 votes.

According to Chief District Election Officer Manoj KC, the counting of provincial assembly election votes will start by tomorrow evening after the completion of the parliamentary election vote counting.