The National body of election management, Election Commission (EC) has completed all the preparations related to the election of members to the National Assembly (NA) that would be taking place in all seven provinces of the country tomorrow.
All preparations for the election have been completed in all the provinces and voting will take place from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm tomorrow, the EC said.
The Constitution of Nepal has stipulated for a bicameral federal legislature comprising the House of Representatives and the National Assembly. Election of members to the House of Representatives has already been held under two phases on November 26 and December 7, 2017.
Election of members to the National Assembly takes place tomorrow. NA will have 59 members. Out of them, 56 members are elected by the Electoral College at the rate of eight members, including at least three women, one Dalit and one person from among the disabled or minority communities, from each province.
The President nominates the remaining three members including at least one woman to the NA at the recommendation of the government.
According to the EC, voting will take place at the Office of the Chief Returning Officer in six provinces. The office of the chief returning officer has been established at the places where the High Court of each province is located.
The polling stations have been set up at public places near the Office of the Chief Returning Officer in Biratnagar (Province 1), Patan, Lalitpur (Province 3), Pokhara (Province 4), Dang (Province 5), Surkhet (Province 6), and Doti (Province 7).
Arrangements have been made for two voting booths at every polling station, EC’s Information Officer Surya Prasad Aryal said. According to him, the province assembly members will cast their votes at a first booth while the local level officials at the next booth.
There will be four separate ballot papers of green and red colours. The weightage of the province assembly members’ vote will be 48 while that of the local level officials would be 18.
Experts will be used for counting the votes. A five-member team from the Bureau of Statistics — three experts and two administrative assistants — for each province have been deputed for counting the votes under the single-transferable electoral system, Aryal said.
The EC has already given orientation training to the representatives of political parties who will be representing in the vote counting.
Aryal said that the Commission has planned to make public the entire election results by tomorrow if possible and by February 8 at the latest. The Joint Secretaries have been deputed to all the provinces for monitoring the election.
Meanwhile, all the members of the NA from Province 2 have been elected unopposed. According to the EC, out of 56 members to be elected for NA, 24 candidates have already been elected.
Six candidates including three women have already been elected unanimously in Province 1. Election is being held there for two positions.
Similarly, voting will be conducted for all eight posts in Province 3 while election is taking place for seven posts in Province 4. A candidate toward disabled and marginalised category has already been elected unopposed, said EC Spokesperson, Nabaraj Dhakal.
Likewise, voting is taking place for the remaining five posts in Province 5 as three women have been unanimously elected while there will be election for all posts in Province 6.
According to EC, election is taking place only for two posts towards Dalit and marginalised categories in Province 7 as other members have already been elected.
Now, 52 candidates are in the race for 32 posts in the NA elections, according to EC.
(with inputs from Rastriya Samachar Samiti)
