KATHMANDU: The alliance of Communist parties of Nepal formed by the CPN-UML-Marxist-Leninist and CPN Center-Maoist emerged victorious after 60 percent of the vote had been counted on Sunday in Thursday's bi-phase general elections.
"The UML is on track to become the party with the highest representation while the Maoist Center and Congress Party are in second and third positions respectively," Election Commission spokesperson Nabaraj Dhakal told Efe news agency.
Nepal held the second and last phase of the historic general elections on Thursday which will put an end to 18 years of an interim legislature and make way for a new bicameral parliament approved in the Constitution of 2015.
In the election, 165 of the 275 members of the federal parliament and representatives of the provincial assemblies were elected, which in turn will help appoint 59 senators of the new upper house or the National Assembly.
According to the vote count at 12 p.m. on Sunday, the UML had won 51 seats and was leading in another 27, while the Maoists have taken 22 and are leading in 13 others.
The UML and the Maoists reached a pre-election agreement to campaign together and not contest in the same constituencies.
According to the agreement, the UML would field candidates in 60 per cent of the electoral demarcations, while the Maoists would take up the remaining 40 per cent.
The ruling Nepali Congress (NC) party has suffered a major setback having obtained 10 seats and leading the count in another 12.
"We have to admit that the NC has done very badly and we will sit down once the results come out to analyse what went wrong," said Gagan Thapa, member of the NC Working Committee, told Efe.
The Madhesi parties, from the southern region of Terai, the most industrialised in the country and the site of constant tensions, have won six seats so far and are leading in 15 others.
In addition to the 165 legislators directly elected, another 110 will be elected according to a system that will take into account the results of each party throughout the country.
It is expected that the final count of the direct election seats will end on Monday and that the allocation of the 110 seats based on the proportional result should conclude on Friday, according to Dhakal.
Provincial election results have been similar to those of the national election.
With the new bicameral parliament, Nepal will come to the end of a transition process that began in 2008 with the end of monarchy, two years after the end of the traumatic war against the Maoist guerrillas.
In addition, the process of institutional composition of the country will be completed on the basis of the 2015 constitution, which saw harsh disputes and protests in the Terai region.