KATHMANDU, APRIL 24
Rastriya Swatantra Party Chair Rabi Lamichhane and Swarnim Wagle continued to lead votes in Chitwan-2 and Tanahun-1 respectively as per the latest vote counting update.
As of 8:00pm today, Lamichhane had garnered 4,358 votes and Wagle had received 23,966 votes.
Ram Prasad Neupane of CPN-UML is trailing behind Lamichhane with 2,585 votes. Likewise, Jit Narayan Shrestha of Nepali Congress has maintained third position in the race with 2,205 votes.
Lamichhane was elected from the constituency in last year's polls defeating his closest rival Umesh Shrestha of Nepali Congress by a huge margin of 34,170 votes.
Likewise, Dr Swarnim Wagle of RSP has continued to lead the vote count in Tanahun-1. He is ahead with 10,154 votes against his nearest rival candidate of Nepali Congress, Gobinda Bhattarai who has got 13,812. Wagle has garnered 23,966 votes.
Similarly, CPN-UML's Sarbendra Khanal has received 6,795 votes. A total of 65,099 votes was cast in the constituency under the by-election for the House of Representatives.
Similarly, Janata Samajwadi Party Chairman Upendra Yadav has taken early lead in Bara-2 as per the initial results of vote counting.
Yadav had collected 2,600 votes as of 8:00pm today. Yadav is closely followed by Shiv Chandra Kushwaha of the Janamat Party with 2,067 votes.
Likewise, Purushottam Paudel of CPN-UML has maintained third position in the list, garnering 861 votes. Ramesh Kharel of Rastriya Swatantra Party is in fourth position with 303 votes.
The by-polls were completed successfully in the three Lower House constituencies - Bara-2, Tanahun-1 and Chitwan-2 - yesterday.
The elections were conducted in the constituencies that were vacated after Ramchandra Paudel (who was elected in November from Tanahun-1) and Ram Sahay Prasad Yadav (who had won from Bara-2) resigned as lawmakers after being elected as president and vice-president of Nepal respectively.
Similarly, Chitwan-2 fell vacant after the Supreme Court dismissed the MP status of Rastriya Swatantra Party Chair Rabi Lamichhane over an issue with his citizenship.
According to the Election Commission, the average voter turnout in yesterday's bypolls in the three constituencies stood at around 60 per cent.
"A total of 64 per cent votes were cast in Bara-2, 63 per cent in Chitwan-2 and 53 per cent in Tanahun-1, as per preliminary reports," EC Spokesperson Shaligram Sharma Poudel told THT.
The voter turnout during last year's polls was 63.56 per cent in Bara-2, 67.63 per cent in Chitwan-2 and 54.03 per cent in Tanahun-1.
The EC plans to publish the final election results by April 25.
In Chitwan-2, 138 polling centres and 43 polling stations were set up. Likewise, Tanahun-1 had 152 polling centres and 69 polling stations. In Bara-2, the voting took place in 136 polling centres and 82 polling stations.
There were 105,011 voters and 34 candidates in Bara-2, 124,695 voters and 22 candidates in Chitwan-2, and 123,305 voters and nine candidates in Tanahun-1.
