Vote Counting Concludes for Federal Parliament Elections; Proportional Representation Results Finalized

Kathmandu. The vote counting for both the first-past-the-post and proportional representation (PR) categories of the Federal Parliament member elections held on Falgun 21 has concluded. Election Commission Assistant Spokesperson Kul Bahadur GC informed that the counting for both categories finished on Wednesday after the completion of counting in some constituencies under the PR system.

The counting for the first-past-the-post seats had already concluded earlier. In the direct elections, Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) secured 125 seats, Nepali Congress 18, CPN-UML 9, Shram Sanskriti 3, RPP 1, and independent candidates secured one seat each.

With the conclusion of the PR vote counting, the Election Commission has begun preparations to determine the number of seats allocated to political parties under the PR system.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the Commission reported that 10,785,876 votes had been counted under the PR system. Among the counted votes, Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) is leading with 5,157,130 votes.

Nepali Congress is in second place with 1,755,872 votes, followed by CPN-UML with 1,452,758 votes. Furthermore, the CPN (Maoist Centre) received 809,577 votes, Shram Sanskriti Party received 385,741 votes, and Rastriya Prajatantra Party received 330,268 votes.

Both Nepali Congress and CPN-UML, which were major forces in the 2079 elections, have seen a contraction in their performance across both electoral systems in this election. CPN-UML's PR vote count this time, which was 2,845,641 in the previous election, has nearly halved, securing only 1,452,758 votes in the PR category this time.

Compared to the votes secured in the previous election, CPN-UML's PR votes have decreased by 1,392,883 votes this time.

Similarly, Nepali Congress's PR votes have also decreased compared to the previous election. Congress received 1,754,695 votes this time, whereas it had secured 2,715,225 votes in the 2079 elections. The difference in PR votes between the previous and current elections for Congress is a deficit of 960,530 votes.

The number of PR members for the parties will be added based on the votes they received. Accordingly, RSP will add 57 PR members, Nepali Congress 20, CPN-UML 16, CPN (Maoist Centre) 9, Shram Sanskriti Party 4, and RPP 4 members. Out of the total 275 members of parliament combining direct and PR seats, RSP will have 182 members, Congress 38, CPN-UML 25, CPN (Maoist Centre) 17, Shram Sanskriti Party 7, RPP 5, and independents 1 member in parliament. It is worth noting that RSP had 21 members in the previous election.

In this election, Janmat, JSP, LSF, NAUP, NMKP, and Janamorcha failed to achieve national party status, allowing Hark Sampang-led Shram Sanskriti Party to emerge. A total of 67 political parties participated in the Federal Parliament member election held on Falgun 21.