NC leads in local poll results in Nepal

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The ruling Nepali Congress has won the most seats in eight districts of Nepal's Madhesi- dominated province bordering India, where key local level elections were held under the third phase.
So far, the Nepali Congress has won 22 local units, whereas CPN(Maoist Centre) and Federal Socialist Party, won 11 local units each, in the final phase of the polls that were held on Monday.
The Rastriya Janata Party Nepal, the key Madhesi party, has won eight seats and main opposition CPN-UML has won seven local units, according to the Election Commission.
The Nepal Loktantrik Forum has won two seats.
So far, results of 61 local units out of total 136 units are out.

The Madhesis, mostly of Indian-origin, launched a prolonged agitation between September, 2015 and February last year against the implementation of the new Constitution which they felt marginalised the Terai community.

Simmering tensions have remained and Madhesi parties refused to take part in local polls unless an amendment to the Constitution was passed to address their demands -- more representation in parliament and redrawing of provincial boundaries.
Later, the disgruntled parties agreed to participate in the elections without their demands being addressed.
The local polls are part of the final step in the peace deal that ended a 10-year civil war in 2006, and pave the way for provincial and general elections later this year.

Since the end of the war, the country has suffered persistent instability, cycling through nine governments in a decade.
The last local representatives were elected in 1997 and their mandates lapsed when their five-year terms expired at the height of the brutal Maoist insurgency.