KATHMANDU, April 9: Bipul Pokhrel, who is vying for the post of president of the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), an umbrella organization of the journalists across the country, has been leading the vote count as of Friday afternoon.

Pokhrel is in the race on behalf of a joint alliance of the Press Union, Press Organization and others. Nirmala Sharma, the candidate representing the progressive-inclusive alliance which includes press chautari Nepal, Press forum Nepal, among others, is trailing behind Pokhrel by 1,156 votes. 

According to the vote counting updates released by the FNJ on Friday afternoon, Pokhrel has garnered as many as 2,580 votes against Sharma’s 1,424 votes.

Gajendra Budhathoki, an independent candidate for the presidential post, however, has received only 119 votes.

Most of the candidates fielded by the joint alliance have been leading the count so far. The FNJ said that the updates included the vote counts updated from 40 districts.

See the latest update (Friday afternoon) of the FNJ election vote counting in the table below:

 
• Bipul_Pokhrel
 
• FNJ
 
• Nirmala_Sharma
 
• Gajendra_Budhathoki