Kathmandu, March 10 The Rastriya Swatantra Party has won 125 of the 165 seats through direct voting in Nepal's parliamentary elections, as vote counting under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system concluded on Tuesday, putting the RSP in a position to form a majority government.
However, the counting of votes under the proportional representation (PR) system is still underway and is expected to conclude by Tuesday night, the Election Commission said.
Vote counting for all 165 seats under the direct voting system has been completed, with the RSP emerging as the largest party with 125 seats, it said.
The Nepali Congress (NC) secured 18 seats, followed by the CPN-UML with nine, the Nepali Communist Party (NCP) with eight, the Shram Sanskriti Party (SSP) with three and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) with one seat. One independent candidate was also elected.
Under the PR system, the RSP has so far secured 4,974,957 votes, followed by NC with 1,685,722 votes, CPN-UML with 1,402,157, NCP with 763,633 votes, SSP with 350,809 and RPP with 323,744 votes, the Election Commission said.
Based on the current trend, the RSP is likely to secure at least 50 seats under the proportional representation system, which would take its total tally in the 275-member House of Representatives to around 175 seats.
This would allow the party to form a majority government under Article 76 (1) of the Constitution of Nepal.
However, the Election Commission said a few more days would be required to declare the final results under the proportional representation system and formally allocate seats to candidates of different parties.