Vote counting has started in major cities, including Kathmandu Metropolitan City, a day after local elections were held across the country.

“Vote counting of Kathmandu metropolitan city started at around 10am at the City Hall” said Prem Poudel, an election officer. “Counting started from votes in Wards 1 and 32.”

In Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Srijana Singh, a Congress leader, is the mayoral candidate of the five-party ruling alliance, while Keshav Sthapit from the UML and Samiksha Baskota from Bibeksheel Sajha Party are contesting.

Balen Shah is an independent candidate. Shah is one of the most talked about candidates. As many as 55 individuals are contesting for the mayoral race.

There are 300,242 voters in the Kathmandu Metropolitan City. A total of 162 representatives will be elected to different posts in the metropolis, according to the commission.

Nepal held local elections on Friday across the country in a single phase.

According to Tulasi Bahadur Shrestha, joint secretary of the Election Commission, counting has already started in most of the local units by now.

In some places, counting started on Friday night.

The election officials are also preparing to count votes of Lalitpur Metropolitan City and Bharatpur Metropolitan City. In Lalitpur, the alliance has fielded Chiribabu Maharjan of the Nepali Congress while the UML has fielded Hari Krishna Byanjankar for the mayoral post.

In Bharatpur, Renu Dahal of the Maoist Centre, Bijay Subedi of the UML and Jagannath Poudel as an independent candidate are contesting for the mayoral position.

Vote counting in Biratnagar Metropolitan City also has started.

The Election Commission has said voting was stalled in 77 booths of 43 polling stations of 28 local units in 16 districts for various reasons and elections will be held there soon.