(dpa) - The Nepal Congress Party took an early lead Friday as the first results from Thursday's historic national elections were announced by the Nepalese Election Commission.
The commission declared Nepali Congress Vice President Prakash Man Singh victorious from Kathmandu constituency number one, by a large margin over his rival from the Communist Party of Nepal - Unified Marxist Leninist.
The election commission also said counting was underway in four other constituencies of Kathmandu and initial trends showed Nepali Congress had done better than expected.
The victory of Prakash Man Singh was the first by Nepali Congress candidate in Kathmandu Valley since the 1994 general election.
In the neighbouring district of Lalitpur, trends showed Maoists were leading in two of the three constituencies where counting was underway.
Nepal voted in the landmark elections to choose a constituent assembly on Thursday and the voting was regarded as generally peaceful.
According to the election commission's preliminary figures, turnout of voters was put at over 60 per cent, although it had cancelled polling in at least 33 centres due to incidents of minor violence.
The 601-member constituent assembly will draft a new constitution and ratify the decision of the interim parliament to abolish the monarchy.