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Independent candidate Balen Shah is leading the vote count in Kathmandu Metropolitan City.

Shah is in the first place with 6, 207 votes while CPN-UML candidate Keshav Sthapit is in the second place with 3, 243 votes and Nepali Congress candidate Srijana Singh is in the third place with 2, 885 votes.

The vote counting is underway in ward 1, 2, 3, 4 and 32 of Kathmandu Metropolitan City.

The main opposition CPN-UML has accused the ruling alliance of rigging the local level elections.

Issuing a statement on Sunday, party General Secretary Shankar Pokharel accused the ruling coalition of rigging during the elections and vote counting in a premeditated way.

Pokharel said that the ruling alliance has made the mockery of democracy and democratic practices.

He accused the Home administration of completely in favour of ruling alliance and against the CPN-UML during the elections.

The UML has urged the Election Commission to conduct re-voting and re-counting of votes as per the applications submitted by the UML central office and the concerned candidates to the election officers of the concerned municipalities and the commission.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba along with the ministers landed in Lumbini on Sunday.

They arrived in Lumbini to welcome Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and to take part in the Buddha Jayanti among other programs.

Along with Deuba, Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand, Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka and Tourism Minister Prem Ale arrived in Lumbini, the birth place of Lord Buddha, this afternoon.

Prime Minister Deuba is scheduled to inaugurate Gautam Buddha International Airport tomorrow.

He will inaugurate a meditation center in Lumbini at 9 am.

Similarly, Deuba along with his Indian counterpart will address a program organized by the Lumbini Development Fund on the occasion of Buddha Jayanti.

Prime Minister Deuba, ministers and chiefs of all the security agencies are in Lumbini at present. 

A large number of security personnel have been deployed in and around the Lumbini area.

The Election Commission (EC) has urged the bodies concerned not to make a minor human error during the counting of votes as an issue of dispute.

The EC has said its attention has been drawn towards incidences of halting the counting, mobbing, shouting and causing a delay in the entire counting process over unnecessary disputes. The latest untoward scenario during the counting process has its impact on the plan of the EC to complete the process before May 19, according to the EC.

In a press statement today, EC spokesperson Shaligram Sharma Poudel has sought to speed up the counting process with the management of required human resources by coordinating with the district-based Human Resources Management Coordination Committee.

It has sought the mobilisation of government including the province government employees in the counting with priority on the basis of their availability and to ensure more and more counting teams on the ground of the availability of space in the counting venues.