Ruling NC-led alliance maintains lead in Nepal

New Delhi, November 27

The ruling Nepali Congress-led (NC) alliance has won 85 seats, the most by an alliance, in the direct voting system and is awaiting the results of proportional voting seats to see if it can cobble up a workable majority.

With votes counted for 157 seats, the rival alliance, led by Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), has won 55 seats.

In the 275-member House of Representatives, 165 will be elected through direct voting and 110 seats will be elected through a proportional electoral system. It seems unlikely that CPN-UML’s slender lead here will be sufficient to make up for the 30-seat deficit in direct voting system. A coalition needs 138 seats for a clear majority.

The CPN-UML has got 25 lakh votes in the proportional electoral, the NC has 23 lakh votes and the CPN-Maoist has 10 lakh votes.

PM Sher Bahadur Deuba of the NC and former PMs — Prachanda, KP Oli and Madhav Kumar — Nepal from various Communist factions have won their direct elections with healthy majorities.

As the two alliances look for partners, the newly-formed Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) and the pro-Hindu Rastriya Prajatantra Party have won seven seats each.