Nepal’s RSP leads in proportional representation voting

The counting of votes under the proportional representation category in Nepal concluded on Wednesday, with the Rastriya Swatantra Party receiving the highest number of votes, according to the Election Commission. The House of Representatives (HoR) in Nepal has a total of 275 seats.

While 165 members are elected through the First Past The Post (FPTP) or direct voting system, 110 members are elected through proportional representation.

“The vote counting concluded. But final results are yet to be published since data entry is still taking place,” an EC official said.

According to the latest updates provided by the EC, a total of 1,07,85,876 votes were counted. The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) received 51,57,130 votes, followed by the Nepali Congress, which secured 17,55,872 votes. The CPN-UML secured 14,52,758 votes while the Nepali Communist Party received 809,577 votes. The Shram Sanskriti Party secured 385,741 votes, and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party 330,268 votes.

The RSP, Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, NCP, Shrama Sanskriti Party and Rastriya Prajatantra Party are likely to get recognition as national parties.  The RSP made history by winning 125 out of 165 seats under direct voting held on March 5. The NC won 18, UML 9, NCP 7, SS 3, RPP 1, Independent 1.

The RSP, which bagged the highest number of seats under the direct voting system and the highest number of votes under the proportional representation category, is likely to take its total tally in the 275-member House of Representatives to around 183 seats.

The party has already got a simple majority and is close to a two-thirds majority, which is essential for constitutional amendments.

Now the Election Commission will allocate seats under the PR system to various political parties before submitting the full report to the president, which would take at least one week. Once the list is submitted, the process for the Government formation will start.