KATHMANDU: Independent candidate Harka Rai is leading the mayoral race in Dharan Sub-metropolitan City, Sunsari, as vote count enters final phase.

He collected 19,155 votes as per the results till 9:30 this morning and is ahead with 4,159 votes with the nearest rival. Nepali Congress candidate Kishor Rai got 14,996 and CPN-UML candidate Manju Bhandari got 12,143 votes.

Rai is ahead of Manju of UML by 7,012 votes and Kishor Rai of Nepali Congress by 4,159 votes.

The counting of only about 4,500 votes remains.

58,277 votes of 62,898 cast in Dharan sub-metropolis have been counted.

CPN-Maoist Center’s candidate Aindra Bikram Begha is leading in deputy mayor race. While he got 18,864 votes, CPN-UML’s Padam Prasad Limbu got 16,581 votes. There is a difference of 2,283 votes between them.