Second phase of polling concludes; vote count likely to begin soon

KATHMANDU: The second phase of voting for the Nepali Congress (NC) President has been completed.

According to the party’s Election Committee, the polling ended at 9 pm. The committee informed 4564 delegates have cast vote in the second round of polling. Out of 4,743 delegates, only 4,681 had cast their votes in round one of the election. In round two, even fewer i.e. 4,564 delegates cast their votes today, the NC Election Committee said.

Prime Minister and incumbent party president Sher Bahadur Deuba and leader Dr Shekhar Koirala are vying for post in the second round after none of the five initial candidates was able to secure more than 50 percent votes in Monday’s election.

Deuba and Dr Koirala, who got the most votes in round one are competing in the second two. Other candidates Prakash Man Singh, Bimalendra Nidhi, and Kalyan Gurung dropped out of the race for NC presidency and extended support to Deuba.

The counting of votes of the two presidential candidates will take place after 11 pm tonight, the NC polls panel said.

After the votes of presidential candidates is complete, counting of votes for other posts will start.

Out of 134 seats in the NC Central Working Committee (CWC), two members have been elected unopposed.

Votes cast for the remaining 132 seats will be counted after the new party President is declared.