Leftist alliance leads in Nepal elections
KATHMANDU : An alliance of communist parties has taken a twothirds lead in the initial counting of votes in Nepal’s first election to provincial and federal assemblies, a serious setback to the ruling Nepali Congress that has long had close ties with India.
Nepal conducted the final round of elections to the federal and seven provincial assemblies on Thursday and the counting of votes is underway across the country. The early results and trends came as a shock to the Nepali Congress and many of its heavyweight candidates feared losing in the polls.
The leftist alliance, which was reportedly cobbled together with China’s backing in October, is likely to dominate power equations in future.
In Province Number 2 that is located close to the border with India, Madhesi parties took the lead in initial counts.
If the alliance of the CPN-UML and Cpn-maoist Centre bags a majority of the seats in the assemblies, Nepal will have communists in key posts such as the president, prime minister and speaker of Parliament.
These were the first elections to the federal and provincial assemblies after the promulgation of a new Constitution in 2015, marking the culmination of a decade-long democratic transition after the abolition of monarchy.
Reports from across the country suggested the leftist alliance was dominating in results and trends. Out of results declared till Friday evening, the CPN-UML had won five seats in the federal assembly and seven in the provincial assemblies.