Voting for 275-member Lower House Concludes

Voting for the 275-member House of Representatives concluded across the country on Thursday, largely peacefully except for a few minor incidents, according to the Election Commission.

Polling began at 7 a.m. and officially ended at 5 p.m., as scheduled. However, voters who had reached polling stations before the 5 p.m. deadline would be allowed to cast their ballots, said Election Commissioner Dr Janaki Kumari Tuladhar.

The commission said no polling centre has been formally declared suspended so far. Minor disputes were reported in Dolakha, Sarlahi, and Rautahat but were later resolved.

Voting was briefly halted at the Malu polling station in Tamakoshi–4 of Dolakha following a dispute, but it resumed shortly afterward, the commission said.

More than 33 percent of registered voters had cast their ballots nationwide by 2 p.m., the Election Commission said. It is scheduled to provide detailed updates during a press conference at 6:15 p.m.

Under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system, 65 political parties contested the election using 61 election symbols. A total of 3,406 candidates — 3,017 men, 388 women, and one from the “others” category — competed under the FPTP system.

Under the proportional representation (PR) system, 3,135 candidates contested, including 1,363 men and 1,772 women.

The election was held for 165 seats under the FPTP system and 110 seats under the PR system.

There are 18,903,689 registered voters in this election, including 9,663,358 men, 9,240,131 women, and 200 from the “others” category. In addition, 186,142 temporary voters were registered.

For the election, 23,112 polling centres were set up across 10,967 polling locations nationwide, along with 143 temporary polling locations. Priority voting arrangements were made for senior citizens, persons with disabilities and pregnant women.

For security, 79,727 personnel from the Nepal Army, 75,797 from Nepal Police, 34,567 from the Armed Police Force, 1,921 from the National Investigation Department, and 149,090 temporary election police personnel were deployed.

(With inputs from RSS)