K P Sharma Oli re-elected chairman of Nepal's CPN-UML party

Nepal's main opposition CPN-UML on Tuesday overwhelmingly re-elected former prime minister K P Sharma Oli as the chairman of the country's largest Communist Party for the second time.

Oli bagged 1,840 votes against his nearest rival Bhim Rawal, who got 223 votes, registering a landslide victory in the party's 10th general convention held in Chitwan district.

The 70-year-old leader was re-elected as the party chief for the next five years.

Elections were held for a few other posts of office-bearers of the party, despite Oli's attempt to forge a consensus in all the positions.

Of the total 2,153 representatives who took part in the convention, 2,096 cast their ballots in the election.

The voting was held electronically. A total of 72 electronic voting machines were used to conduct the voting, MyRepublica news website reported.

The election was held for the post of Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Secretaries and central committee members under various clusters, it said.

This was the first general convention of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified MarxistLeninist) held after a split in the party in August when senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal quit CPN-UML and floated CPN-Unified Socialist.