Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has been elected with a huge margin of votes from the Dadeldhura constituency in far west Nepal for the seventh consecutive time.
Mr. Deuba, 77, secured 25,534 votes against his nearest rival Sagar Dhakal, 31, an independent candidate who received 1,302 votes. Mr. Deuba has never lost any parliamentary election in his five decades of political career.
Mr. Dhakal is a young engineer, who had a verbal squabble with Mr. Deuba during a public debate at BBC’s Sajha Sawal program five years ago, after which he decided to challenge Mr. Deuba saying that now youths should get chance in politics and senior people like Mr. Deuba should get rest.
Nepali Congress president Mr. Deuba is currently holding the post of Prime Minister for the fifth term.
The ruling Nepali Congress has so far bagged 10 seats in the House of Representatives (HoR) while it is leading in 46 other constituencies.
The CPN-UML led by K.P. Oli has so far bagged three seats and is leading in 42 constituencies.
Elections to the HoR and seven provincial assemblies were held on Sunday. The counting of votes started on Monday.
Out of 275 Members of Parliament, 165 will be elected through direct voting, while the remaining 110 will be elected through a proportional electoral system. Similarly, out of a total of 550 members of the provincial assemblies, 330 will be elected directly and 220 will be elected through the proportional method.