Direct Election Vote Counting Concludes for House of Representatives Polls; Rastriya Swatantra Party Dominates

Kathmandu. The vote counting for the direct (first-past-the-post) system under the House of Representatives election has concluded. The counting under this system finished on Monday after the final vote results from Sankhuwasabha were made public.

According to the final results, out of 165 constituencies, the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) secured victory in 125 seats. Similarly, the Nepali Congress won 18 seats, CPN-UML won 9, CPN (Maoist Centre) won 8, Shram Sanskriti Party won 3, Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) won 1, and one independent candidate was elected.

Older forces, including the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML, have significantly shrunk in this election, while the RSP has emerged as a new power.

Looking at the regional distribution, the RSP and Congress have representation from all seven provinces in the election, while other parties show presence in only a few provinces. 

Regionally, the RSP won 17 out of 28 seats in Koshi Province, 30 out of 32 in Madhesh, 31 out of 33 in Bagmati, 15 out of 18 in Gandaki, 21 out of 24 in Lumbini, 1 seat in Karnali, and 10 out of 16 in Sudurpashchim. 

The Congress won 4 seats in Koshi, 1 seat each in Madhesh and Bagmati, 2 seats each in Gandaki and Lumbini, 5 seats in Karnali, and 3 seats in Sudurpashchim. 

The CPN-UML secured 4 seats in Koshi, 3 seats in Sudurpashchim, and 1 seat each in Lumbini and Karnali. This party has zero seats in Madhesh, Bagmati, and Gandaki provinces. 

The CPN (Maoist Centre) won one seat each in Madhesh and Bagmati, 2 seats in Lumbini, and 2 seats in Karnali. This party has no representation in Koshi, Gandaki, and Sudurpashchim. 

The Shram Sanskriti Party won 3 seats from Koshi, and the RPP won one seat from Karnali, while independent candidate Mahabir Pun was elected.

The Congress, which won 57 seats in the 2079 election, lost 39 seats. The CPN-UML, which won 43 seats, lost 34 seats. The then Maoist and Socialist factions within the CPN (Maoist Centre) won a total of 27 seats in the direct elections but lost 19 seats this time. 

The RPP, which won 7 seats, lost 6 seats this time. Parties such as JSP, Janamat, Nagarik Unmukti, Nepal Workers and Peasants Party, Rastriya Janamorcha, etc., could not register a presence this time. 

The RSP, which previously won 7 seats, added 118 seats to reach 125 seats, replacing the presence of these parties. Furthermore, the Shram Sanskriti Party, contesting the parliamentary election for the first time, won by breaking the strongholds of two UML and one Maoist party previously.