Nepal Holds Nationwide Voting for House of Representatives Election Today

Kathmandu. Today (Thursday), voting for the members of the House of Representatives is taking place simultaneously across the country on Falgun 21.

The Election Commission has stated that voting will occur in a single phase from 7 AM to 5 PM in all 77 districts of the country. This is the third House of Representatives election since the country entered the Federal Democratic Republic.

Through this election, a total of 275 members will be elected: 165 under the First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system and 110 under the Proportional Representation (PR) system. A total of 18,903,689 voters, including 9,663,358 males, 9,240,131 females, and 200 others, will exercise their right to vote. For them, 23,112 polling stations, 143 temporary polling stations, across 10,967 polling sites have been arranged nationwide.

In this year's election, 3,406 candidates (3,017 males, 388 females, and 1 other) from 65 political parties are in the electoral field for the FPTP seats, while 3,135 candidates (1,363 males and 1,772 females) are competing for the PR seats.

The Election Commission has made arrangements so that voters whose names are on the voter list but do not possess the original voter ID card are not deprived of voting. Such voters can cast their ballots by showing the original copy of their Nepali citizenship certificate, National Identity Card, passport, driver's license, or land ownership certificate as an alternative to the voter ID card. Furthermore, the Commission has stated that priority will be given to senior citizens, persons with disabilities, the infirm, and pregnant women for ease of voting.

Strict security arrangements have been put in place to conduct the election in a clean, impartial, and fear-free environment. For this, a security force comprising over 79,000 Nepali Army personnel, 75,000 Nepal Police, 34,000 Armed Police Force, over 1,900 National Investigation officials, and approximately 150,000 temporary police have been mobilized. Two hundred fifteen thousand employees have been deployed to conduct the election. 

After the voting process begins, all news related to the election can be read on Ratopati Online's Election Special portal.