Nepali Congress, the political party of caretaker Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has secured the highest number of seats in the November 20 election as the vote count nears a conclusion.
At 53 the Nepali Congress has got the single highest number of seats under First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) even though it had contested the election forming an alliance of five different parties, according to the latest figures of the country’s Election Commission. Opposition CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist) has fallen to the second spot with 42 seats by 11:15 am. Member of the ruling coalition CPN-Maoist Center has stood third with 17 seats, CPN-Unified Socialist fourth with 10 seats, Janata Samajbadi, Rastriya Prajatantra and Rastriya Swatantra Party with 7 seats each.
Along with the FPTP, the vote count of Proportionate Representation is also underway where opposition CPN-UML has garnered over 2.5 million votes while Nepali Congress is following with 2.3 million votes (as of 11:30 AM-Local Time).
The Rastriya Swatantra Party has stood third in the line crossing the mark of 1 million votes with the Maoist Center in the fourth position crossing the mark of one million in the same time frame. According to EC’s preliminary estimate, voter turnout was 61 per cent.
Under Proportionate Representation, the provision has it that a party is required to get at least three per cent of the total number of votes cast to get seats meaning a single party in these elections should get over 320,000 votes to secure seats.
Making the division of seats on the basis of the PR votes also, Nepal still is going to get a hung parliament with parties struggling to secure 50 per cent seats in 275 seated House of Representatives. Out of the 275 seats 165 members are being elected from the FPTP system while the 110 will make their way into the lower house under the PR system.