Nepal: Maoists defeated, Congress leads

Kathmandu: Maoist supremo Prachanda suffered a double blow on Thursday as he was handed a humiliating defeat in one of the two seats he contested and his party trailed at a distant third with Nepali Congress taking a lead in trends in counting of votes to choose Nepal’s new Constituent Assembly.

The Sushil Koiralaled Nepali Congress (NC) was leading in 74 constituencies while its rival CPN-UML was ahead in 51 seats. The Unified CPN-Maoist was third, leading in 19 seats.

Official results for the polls to elect an assembly that will draft Nepal’s new constitution were also announced for 34 seats with CPN-UML winning 17 seats and NC bagging 16, officials said.

The Unified CPN-Maoist also opened their account by winning Sindhuli constituency No 3, where Maoist candidate Haribol Gajurel defeated Nepali Congress candidate Khadga Waiwa, the Election Commission said.

Nepali Congress has won in 5 out of the ten seats in the capital while CPN-UML has won two, officials said. 

The counting will lead to the formation of a 601-member Constituent Assembly, including 240 elected under a direct voting system. Proportionate voting will elect members to 335 seats and the remaining 26 members will be nominated by the government.

In what came as a setback to Prachanda, he and his daughter were handed down humiliating defeats in the polls.

Nepali Congress candidate Rajan K.C. beat the first post-war Prime Minister, securing 20,392 votes and restricting Prachanda to 12,859 in the Kathmandu Constituency 10. 

Third candidate in contention CPN-UML's Surendra Manandhar also secured more votes than Prachanda (13,619 votes).

Meanhwile, Nepal’s Unified CPN-Maoist  demanded a suspension of the vote counting, alleging conspiracy after initial results showed the party was trailing at third position. “Due to the conspiracy and unusual activities we demand that the vote counting be postponed,” the party said.