Balendra Shah, an independent candidate, is set to win Kathmandu Metropolitan City.

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.

Of the 32 wards in Kathmandu, counting of votes of 27 wards has been completed.

Around 19,300 votes now are yet to be counted, according to the Election Commission.

Since Shah’s lead is more than the votes remaining to be counted, his win is certain.

Kathmandu is the biggest metropolitan city with a little over 300,000 eligible voters. As per the Election Commission, voter turnout in Kathmandu Metropolitan City was around 64 percent, which means around 192,000 votes were cast.

A few days ago, Harka Sampang Rai made history by defeating party candidates to claim Dharan Sub-Metropolitan City as an independent candidate.

He secured 20,821 votes to defeat Kishor Rai of Nepal Congress who garnered 16,059 votes.

Sampang Rai, a social activist, had contested for the mayoral post in 2017 as well, but had faced a massive defeat by securing just a little over 400 votes.

Yet another independent candidate to win the mayoral race this time is Gopal Hamal in Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan City.

Hamal secured 26,865 votes to defeat Nripa Bahadur Wad of the Nepali Congress who secured 14,817 votes.