Nepal elections: Nepal Congress emerges as leading party

Kathmandu: Nepali Congress which won 105 seats has emerged as the leading party after counting of votes for 240 seats under the direct election system was completed today for Nepal's new 601-member assembly.As the final results were out this morning, CPN-UML followed the NC with 91 seats and the Unified CPN-Maoist, the largest party in the previous Constituent Assembly has been reduced to the third position with 26 seats.Madhesi Peoples Rights Forum-Democratic and Terai Madhes Democratic Party bagged 4 seats each.[caption id="attachment_1248303" align="alignleft" width="380"] Nepal election commission officer. AP[/caption]Madhesi Peoples Rights Forum-Nepal bagged 2 seats while Rastriya Prajatantra Party got 3 seats and Sadbhawana Party, Terai Madhes Sadbhawana Party and Nepal Peasants and Workers Party got 1 seat each.Two independent candidates also won. Altogether, Madhes-based parties got 12 seats in the direct voting system.The counting for 335 proportionate seats has also begun. The counting of votes will lead to the formation of a 601-member Constituent Assembly, including 240 elected through direct voting. Proportionate voting will elect 335 members and the remaining 26 will be nominated by the government. The assembly will draft Nepal's new Constitution.Under proportionate representation (PR) system, the entire country is considered as one election constituency and seats are allocated in proportion to the vote secured by respective political party.Altogether 10,709 candidates from 122 political parties are contesting under the PR system. The 335 seats will be divided among the 122 competing parties according to the proportion of the total votes each party gets.A party needs a total of 301 seats to get an absolute majority.Under the proportionate voting system, CPN-UML is leading all other parties followed by Nepali Congress and the Maoists have come third so far.PTI