KATHMANDU: Results from Nepal’s parliamentary elections held over the weekend began to emerge on Monday, with political analysts saying more established parties could lose some support to newer parties and younger candidates.

The ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba with the former Maoist rebels is pitted against the main opposition Nepal Communist Unified Marxist-Leninist (UML) party in the election.

There were no pre-election polls, though prior to the election political analysts had expected the ruling alliance led by the Nepali Congress to retain power.

Deuba’s Nepali Congress party won the first seat to be declared in Mustang district, the election commission said on Monday.

Mustang is a remote district on the borders of Tibet region in China, with a population of around 15,000 and analysts said its result might not be indicative for the overall outcome.

“Mustang cannot be a test case.... when results from Kathmandu and other big cities come in then we could have a trend,” Bipin Adhikari, constitutional expert at Kathmandu University and analyst said.

“Traditional parliamentary parties are in danger of losing many of their seats to new parties or independent professional candidates,” he said.

Election of 550 members of the seven state assemblies were simultaneously held on Sunday. Two people were killed in election related violence, officials said.

Local media reports said the opposition UML was leading in 10 constituencies, the centrist Nepali Congress in six and the newly formed National Independent Party in five seats, though party officials said it was too early to get a sense of the final results. All results are expected within two weeks.

Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2022