Nepal to announce elections results on Wednesday

Kathmandu, Dec 6 (EFE).- The election commission of Nepal is set to announce Wednesday the results of the Nov.20 general elections, in which Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s Nepali Congress party leads the count but without a majority to form a government.

The deputy spokesman of the commission, Surya Prasad Aryal, confirmed to EFE Tuesday the date for the declaration of the results of the election to the 275-member House of Representatives, following a series of setbacks in the count.

On Nov.20, Nepal held elections to elect members of the parliament and seven provincial assemblies.

On Monday, the commission announced the results of the 165 direct seats of the House of Representatives, while the results of the remaining 110 seats in the proportional representation were pending.

The election results were delayed as there were obstructions in vote counting in a number of constituencies, said Aryal.

According to the preliminary result of the proportional representation of the House of Representatives, seven parties have crossed the ‘threshold’ of 3 percent that required to be recognized as a national party.

The Nepali Congress, led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, won 57 seats under the direct voting system.

The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), or CPN-UML, led by KP Sharma Oli bagged 44 seats, while the Maoist Centre led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal won 18 seats.

In proportional representation votes, the CPN-UML is ahead, and is expected to win 34 seats, while the Nepali Congress is projected to secure 32 seats, and the Maoist Centre 14.

With this, the total seats of the Nepali Congress could reach 89, followed by the CPN-UML with 78 and the Maoist Centre 32.

A party or a coalition needs 138 seats for a clear majority.

As none of the parties are likely to secure an absolute majority, the ruling coalition is expected to remain united to continue in power.

Maoist Centre, Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Socialist), Janata Samajwadi Party and Rastriya Janamorchha are the existing coalition partners of the ruling Nepali Congress.

Now, the Maoist Centre is trying to negotiate a greater participation in the government in return for continued support, a senior leader of the Nepali Congress told EFE on condition of anonymity.

The Himalayan country has witnessed a long political instability with 27 prime ministers in the last three decades.

Nepal approved its new constitution in 2015 after a peace process that ended a decade-long civil war that first broke out in 1996 between Maoist rebels and official forces of the Hindu monarchy that ruled the country back then. EFE

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