KATHMANDU – The counting of votes cast in the election held on Monday under the Nepali Congress’ 14th general convention is in progress at the local Rashtriya Sabha Griha (City Hall).
As per the latest vote tally, Prime Minister and party president Sher Bahadur Deuba is leading the number of votes for the post of president. The party’s Central Election Committee said Deuba is leading the votes from the beginning. He had secured 958 votes out of the 2,006 votes counted until 6.30 while Dr Shekhar Koirala had got 726 votes, Prakash Man Singh 171 votes, Bimalendra Nidhi 117 votes and Kalyan Gurung seven votes, the Committee said.
A total 4,679 out of the 4,743 voters had cast their ballots in the voting that ran from 11.45 am till 11.45 pm on Monday. The vote counting was started at 4.20 am today. The counting of votes was started after completing all the antecedent processes like sealing off the ballot box, preparing the particulars and agreeing the code of conduct for vote counting immediately after the voting was over.
As per the NC statute a candidate vying for the post of president has to secure more than 50 per cent of the votes cast to get elected. If any candidate fails to secure this much votes, then the second round of election is held among the two candidates securing the highest votes. The candidate securing the highest number of votes in the re-election is declared the winner.
The election was held for 132 posts including the party central working committee office-bearers and the members. The counting of votes for the rest of the posts would be done at the party’s central office after concluding the counting for the post of party president, the Committee said.
The other candidates vying for party presidency are vice-president Bimalendra Nidhi, former general secretary Prakash Man Singh and central members Dr Shekhar Koirala and Kalyan Kumar Gurung.
