The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (National Democratic Party) led by Home Minister Kamal Thapa is ahead of rest of the small parties that took part in the municipal polls on Wednesday.

People coming of City Hall after acquiring information on the vote counting, amidst tight securing, Thursday morning, Feb 09 06. nepalnews.com

According to the information provided by the Election Commission, out of the results announced for 17 municipalities, RPP (Thapa) candidates have been elected to the post of mayors in eight municipalities and deputy mayors in two municipalities. The only recognized party in the previous election, Nepal Sadbhavana Party has won to the post of mayor in one municipality and deputy mayor in two municipalities. All other elected were independent candidates.

In Lekhnath municipality, less than 3 percent of the voters cast their votes. Of the total 32,644 voters in the municipality, Hari Bahadur Harijan has been declared a winner for the post of Mayor after polling just 401 votes while his nearest rival Chandra Bahadur Ranabhat stood second by bagging 373 votes.

According to the EC, over 72 percent of the total voters cast their ballots in Gaur municipality, the hometown of Madhav Kumar Nepal, general secretary of CPN (UML), while some 35 percent of the total voters turned up in Biratnagar, the hometown of Giorija Prasad Koirala, president of Nepali Congress. Gaur had a total of 16,538 voters and Biragnagar had 95,686 voters.

Of the elected mayors, Dhruba Maharjan of Kirtipur municipality polled the highest votes (5,468) while Bidyadevi Rawal of Tikapur municipality received the lowest (284). Their rivals polled 1,893 and 105 respectively. Kirtipur had a total of 23,831 voters while the number of voters in Tikapur was nearly 24,000.

According to the EC, some 20 percent of the over 1.4 million voters cast their votes in the municipal polls held in 36 municipalities of the country on Wednesday.