The first ever elections for picking the official trade union of the civil servants were held across the country on Wednesday.

The election will pick district, department and centre level leadership from among 55,329 civil servants below the post of section officer.

The voting was conducted at 129 polling centres from 9:00 am till 5:00 pm on Wednesday, Chief Election Officer Gita Prasad Timilsina said. He estimated that 80 percent ballots were cast. “The elections were held peacefully across the country,” he said, “The counting has begun from this evening itself.” 

The count results of the ministries, constitutional bodies, and departments with small number of voters have started coming.

According to early results, Nepali Congress aligned trade union has secured victory in Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority and the Ministry of Water, while the CPN-UML aligned union has won the union leadership in Ministry of Youth and Sports and Public Service Commission.

Seven trade unions have been vying for the leadership of civil servants’ trade union. The government took the initiatives to hold the election to pick one official union after civil servants started forming unions aligned to every political party. The civil servants were given holiday for the election.

Around 1,600 employees and 1,200 security personnel were mobilised to conduct the elections. Civil servants above the officer-level and those heading the offices were not allowed to take part in the voting.