The Nepali Congress on Saturday took a lead over the CPN-UMl in polls to elect an Assembly that will draft Nepal’s new Constitution while the Maoists led by Prachanda were headed for a humiliating defeat.
Nepali Congress (NC) won 101 seats while the CPN-UMl bagged 89 out of the 231 directly elected seats for which results have been declared so far. The Unified CPN-Maoist was trailing far behind in third position with 24 seats. Other fringe parties won 17 seats.
With only nine results for the directly elected seats yet to be announced, NC appeared set to emerge as the party with most seats in this category. 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. Madhesi Peoples Rights Forum-Nepal won two seats while three fringe parties and an independent candidate claimed one constituency each.