Three candidates of the ruling coalition emerged victorious in Thursday’s National Assembly election in Gandaki Province.

Kiran Babu Shrestha and Padam Bahadur Pariyar of the Nepali Congress and CPN (Maoist Centre)’s Manarupa Sharma secured upper house seats.

Shrestha garnered 3,808 votes, securing victory over CPN-UML’s Chakra Bahadur Parajuli who managed 2,477 votes.

Likewise, Pariyar, who contested under the disabled/minority cluster, garnered 3,779 votes. His competitor, Hemendra Sherchan of the UML, got just 2,458 votes.

Under the woman cluster, Sharma secured 3,660 votes while 2,553 votes were cast in UML’s Samjhana Devkota’s favour.

A total of 6,140 votes were cast in Gandaki Province.

Eight candidates—three from the coalition and UML each and two from Rastriya Prajatantra Party—contested under three clusters in Thursday’s poll.

The term of 20 lawmakers in the 59-strong upper house is expiring on March 3. While 19 seats are filled through elections, one member will be nominated by the President on the Cabinet’s recommendation.

As many as 549 provincial assembly members and 1,498 chiefs and their deputies of the local units are eligible to vote in the upper house election. Their votes have a combined weightage of 57,559. A vote of the provincial assembly member carries a weightage of 53, whereas it is 19 each for the chief and deputy chiefs of the local units.