KATHMANDU: Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) candidate Dr Swarnim Wagle continues to lead in the vote count of the by-election to the House of Representatives (HoR) member held in Tanahu-1 on Sunday by a wide margin.

Wagle has obtained 23,966 votes so far while Nepali Congress leader Govinda Bhattarai, who is also the common candidate of the ruling coalition, received 13,812 votes, and CPN-UML candidate Sarbendra Khanal got 6,795 votes, informed chief returning officer Komal Prasad Acharya.

Vote counting started at 11.45 pm last night.

A total of 63,757 votes were cast in 42 wards of the Tanahu constituency-1.