Kathmandu, Feb 25: Nepal’s Acting Chief Election Commissioner Ram Prasad Bhandari on Monday said the results of the general elections scheduled for March 5 will be published within 24 hours of collecting the ballot boxes.
A total of 18.9 million eligible voters will exercise their franchise to elect 275 members of the House of Representatives (HoR).
While 165 lawmakers will be elected through direct voting, 110 will be elected under the proportional voting system that allows for the representation of minorities and smaller parties in the parliament.
The Election Commission plans to begin vote counting immediately after the ballot boxes are collected, Bhandari told a private news agency.
He said while it may take one or two days to declare the results under the proportional representation system, the outcomes of the direct voting or first-past-the-post (FPTP) system will be announced within 24 hours of ballot collection.
The proportional representation (PR) system is used to elect 110 of the 275 members of the HoR based on the total votes received by political parties nationwide.
Voters cast a separate ballot for a party, and seats are allocated in proportion to each party’s share of votes. Parties must ensure inclusion of women and marginalised groups such as dalits, janajatis, madhesis and minorities in their PR candidate lists. This system aims to make parliament more representative of Nepal’s social and ethnic diversity.
Election Commission spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai said the dispatch of ballot papers to areas outside the Kathmandu Valley has already been completed.
He said the distribution of ballot papers to some constituencies in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur districts will be completed by Tuesday night.
Polling will be held from 7 am to 5 pm on March 5.
The Commission has allowed political parties and candidates to campaign from February 16 to March 2. The silence period, during which no campaign activities will be permitted, will begin at midnight on March 2.