Kathmandu, June 29

The Election Commission said counting of votes had started in 307 local levels by this evening.

The second phase of local level elections was held yesterday in 334 local levels of 35 districts of Provinces 1, 5 and 7.

According to the preliminary vote counting data provided by the EC, 78 candidates of the main opposition party, CPN-UML, were leading in contests for posts of mayor or chairpersons of at least 78 local levels — 40 of Province 1, 22 of Province 5 and 16 of Province 7.

The EC said the Nepali Congress and the CPN-Maoist Centre were in the second and third position, respectively. The preliminary results show that NC candidates were leading in contests for top posts of at least 66 local levels — 25 of Province 1, 20 of Province 5 and 21 of Province 7.

Likewise, the EC said the CPN-MC candidates were leading in contests for top post of at least 26 local levels — six of Province 1, 12 of Province 5 and 8 of Province 7.

Top post leaders

Party

Province 1

Province 5

Province 7

Total

CPN-UML

40

22

16

78

NC

25

20

21

66

CPN-MC

6

12

8

26

Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal and Naya Shakti Party-Nepal candidates were leading in contests for top posts of four local levels, while Rastriya Prajatantra Party candidates were leading in contests for top posts of two local levels.

The poll panel stated that chief returning officers and returning officers had been coordinating with candidates, political parties, security agencies and others concerned to start vote counting in the remaining local levels, where vote counting had not yet started.

The EC said ballot boxes from remote locations were airlifted in choppers to the respective headquarters of local levels, except for ballot boxes of a polling centre in Taplejung district.

The second round of civic polls was held in 334 local levels, including one metropolitan city, seven sub-metropolitan cities, 111 municipalities and 215 rural municipalities.

Earlier today, the EC stated that voter turnout in yesterday’s elections was 73.69 per cent across 35 districts of Provinces 1, 5 and 7.

The poll panel stated that 72.49 per cent voters had exercised franchise in Province 1, 75.34 per cent in Province 5 and 73.04 per cent in Province 7, according to a press release issued by EC Spokesperson Surya Prasad Sharma.