KATMANDU, Nepal - Nepal’s chief election official says former communist rebels have won half the directly elected seats in an assembly that will rewrite the constitution. 

The party representing the ex-rebels has won 120 of the 240 directly elected seats in voting held April 10. Counting is continuing for three seats, but the Maoists are not expected to win those.

The directly elected seats make up about 40 percent of the 601 seats in the assembly.

Most of the additional seats are assigned to parties based on the percentage of votes they received. Results for those are expected later in the week.