Pokhara, Jan. 22 -Girija Prasad Koirala, President of the Nepali Congress party, has been reelected as the party’s president by an overwhelming margin of 429 votes.

According to high-level sources, Koirala has won 936 votes against 507 votes of his rival Sher Bahadur Deuba. Ramhari Joshi, the third candidate could manage only 10 votes.

Of the 1477 total voters, 1468 votes were cast. Eight votes were invalid and there were 9 absentees. However the result is yet to be announced officially as the counting of votes for the 18 seats of the Central Working Committee of the party is still going on at the time this report was dispatched. Party sources said the counting will not be over till late at night or early next morning.

Party Spokesman Narahari Acharya said the official announcement of the election would be made during the concluding session of the General Convention tomorrow morning.

The votes Koirala got was a little less than what he had got in the party’s 9th General Convention held in Kathmandu five years ago. In that convention, Koirala had got 1,100 plus votes and his competitor Chiranjibi Wagle had got only 252 votes with Ramhari Joshi doing slightly better this time with 10 votes.

The election for the party president and 18 members of the Central Working Committee of the party was held today on the fourth day of the 10th General Convention of the party.

Although the voting schedule was fixed from 9 A.M. to 1. P.M. but the voting was still going until 3 in the afternoon. And the counting could begin only around 6:30 in the evening.

The outcome of the election for the party president had already become clear as the unofficial results began to seep outside the Dipendra Convention Hall, where the election was being held.

With the victory of Koirala almost assured the crowd that had gathered throughout the day had began to scatter.

At the Deuba’s contact office at Hotel Anand, just minutes walk away from the convention hall, the environment was gloomy. With the defeat almost assured, some of Deuba supporters were watching a movie on the television. However, some were satisfied that Deuba’s showing was not as bad as Wagle’s in the last General Convention.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister and Party President Koirala was already in bed at around 8:00. Journalists who reached the guest house of the Nepal Rastra Bank office in Pokhara were told that the Prime Minister was already in bed due to hectic schedule of the last four days and that he would meet the people only in the next morning.

Earlier in the morning, the final close-door session of the General Convention had passed the report of the General Secretary of the party and the party’s policies and programmes.

The code of conduct formulated by the party for its workers, MPs, ministers and others was passed by the convention on its Sunday’s second session.

With the completion of discussions and the election, the 10th General Convention of the Nepali Congress is over. The concluding session of the convention will be held tomorrow morning.