POKHARA: The counting of votes in ward no. 17 of Pokhara-Lekhnath Metropolitan City has started from 2:45 pm today.

The parties and Election Commission had reached an agreement to start the vote counting process of the disputed ward at around 1:00 pm at the Metropolis Training Centre in the district today.

According to Chief of Regional Election Office Gangalal Subedi, the agreement was reached after the voting stamp on the ballot paper and the specimen of the Swastika stamp which had been used in the record were found identical.

Of the 33 wards in the City, the counting of votes for the wards 1 to 19 was concluded by 12:00 pm today with the CPN-UML on lead.

CPN-UML Mayoral candidate Man Bahadur GC mustered 28,866 votes while his close contender Ramji Kunwar from Nepali Congress secured 24,665 votes.

Similarly, Manju Devi Gurung of UML garnered 28,238 votes for the post of deputy mayor while her closest competitor Saraswati Gurung of NC mustered 23,220 votes.