Balendra Shah and Sunita Dongol are all set to win Kathmandu Metropolitan City as Mayor and Deputy Mayor. Balendra Shah, an independent candidate and perhaps the most unexpected candidate to win is now all set to become the Mayor of Kathmandu.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Shah was leading with 55,777 votes, ahead of Sirjana Singh of the Nepali Congress by 20,406 votes and Keshav Sthapit of the CPN-UML by 21,151 votes. Singh is trailing with 35,371 votes. Sthapit is running third with 34,626 votes. According to the Election Commission (EC) round 19,300 votes are left to be counted. Kathmandu is the biggest metropolitan city with over 300,000 eligible voters. Voter turnout in Kathmandu Metropolitan City was around 64 percent, which means around 192,000 votes were cast, according to the EC.
Since Shah’s lead is more than the votes remaining to be counted, his win is certain. He will succeed Bidya Sundar Shakya. Local-level elections were held on May 13 and this time around several independent candidates was elected Mayor, making headlines and surprising all. Some other successful independent candidates include Harka Sampang in Dharan, Manoj Kumar Sah in Janakpur, and Gopal 'Gopi' Hamal in Dhangadhi.
Sunita Dangol is also well on her way to winning as the new deputy mayor of Kathmandu. A CPN-UML candidate Sunita Dangol has at this point of time 60,675 votes, with her closet competitor, ruling alliance's Rameshwar Shrestha at only 20,686 votes. Dangol has received the most popular votes in the polls.
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