In the ongoing vote count for Palpa constituency number 1, Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) candidate Bimal Panta is currently leading.

Counting began Friday at 4am, and results from two wards—Tinau Rural Municipality ward 5 and Tansen Municipality ward 8—show Panta with 1,306 votes out of 2,519 counted.

CPN-UML candidate Narayan Prasad Acharya has 554 votes, Nepali Congress candidate Sandeep Rana 322, Nepali Communist Party’s Hum Bahadur Sunari Magar 170, and Salan Chidi of the Mongol National Organisation 57, according to Election Officer Dasharath Pangeni.

A total of 13 candidates, including nine party-backed and four independents, are contesting the seat. Out of 98,383 registered voters, 51,881 had cast their ballots in this constituency.