Dambar Khadka of the Nepali Congress has taken an early lead as the counting of votes cast in Ilam-2 by-election is underway on Sunday.

As of 4:30pm, Khadka has received 1,155 votes. He is closely followed by Suhang Nembang of the CPN-UML at 1,063 votes.

Independent candidate Dakendra Singh Limbu is third in the race garnering 313 votes.

Around 60 percent of votes were cast in the constituency in the by-election held on Saturday. In Ilam-2, a total of 115,889 individuals were eligible to vote, but only around 69,287 took part in the voting.

As many as 19 candidates have contested the Ilam-2 by-polls.

During the 2022 federal election, UML’s Subas Nembang beat Khadka by a narrow margin of 114 votes. The CPN (Maoist Centre) had supported Congress candidate Khadka then but the Maoist Centre has allied with the UML now.

The Ilam-2 House seat has been vacant after Subas Nembang died of a heart attack in September last year. The UML leader had continuously won the constituency since the 1999 general elections.

The CPN-UML fielded Suhang, son of the former Speaker Subas Nembang, as the party’s candidate in the constituency.