UPDATE: Vote-count for NC president, Deuba widening lead, Koirala secures 197 votes

KATHMANDU: Sher Bahadur Deuba, who is eying to win the presidential election of the ruling Nepali Congress (NC), is leading the vote-count underway at the City Hall in the capital 

Of the 500 votes counted, Deuba has secured 299 votes against his contender Dr Shekhar Koirala’s  197 votes.

So far, two votes have been invalidated, according to the party’s election committee. 

As no result was obtained during the first round of voting held on Monday, a run-off was held on Tuesday where the top vote-securers --- incumbent President Sher Bahadur Deuba and Dr Shekhar Koirala-- are pitted against each other. 

Of the total 4,743 delegates,  4,564 cast their votes, according to the party’s election committee. 

Re-polling was carried out as none of the five candidates secured more than 50 percent of the total votes cast in Monday’s voting. While Deuba secured 2,258, Koirala garnered  1,702 votes in the first round. A total of 4,679 votes were cast. A presidential candidate should have secured 2,340 votes to be declared the winner. 

According to the party’s central election committee, Prakash Man Singh secured 371 votes followed by Bimalendra Nidhi who managed to win 250 votes. Kalyan Gurung garnered the lowest of 22 votes.