The counting of votes of the November 20 general elections towards proportional representation (PR) category is about to come to an end.
According to the Election Commission, 10,403,942 PR votes were validated till 9 am on Saturday.
So far, the CPN (UML) is leading the pack with 27,83,085 votes followed by Nepali Congress with 26,52,293 votes in the second place.
CPN (Maoist Center) and Nepal Samajwadi Party, which have contested the election under single symbol of hammer and sickle within a circle, are in the third place with 11,61,878 votes. Behind the Maoist Center/Nepal Samajbadi is Rastriya Swotantra Party at fourth place with 11,22,966 votes.
Similarly, Rastriya Prajatantra Party has garnered 5,86,251 PR votes followed by Janata Samajwadi Party, Nepal, with 4,20,942; Janamat Party with 3,94,384 and the CPN (Unified Socialist) with 2,94,093 votes.
Towards the bottom of the anks, Nagarik Unmukti Party has received 2,71,658 votes and Loktantrik Samajbadi Party Nepal 1,67,279 votes.
Apart from these, other parties have also received less than 100,000 votes.
Any party that wins one seat in the House of Representatives under first-past-the-post (FPTP) category and gets more than 3 percent of the total valid votes under PR category gets recognition as a national party.
Since the counting of votes in Syangja 2, Bajura and Dolakha is still underway, a final tally of how many votes have been invalidated and how many have been validated is yet to be known.
However, according to the preliminary estimate of the Election Commission, voter turnout was 61 percent of the total 17.9 million registered voters.
According to this calculation, 10.9 million votes were cast in the election.
Of the 10.9 million votes cast, the election body estimated that 300,000 of these votes could be invalid, and thus total valid votes might be 10.6 million.
The 3 percent threshold of 10.6 million is about 320,000 votes. Any party winning at least one FPTP seat and securing over 320,000 PR votes would become a national party.
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