Kathmandu, December 6

The Election Commission today urged all eligible voters of 45 districts to cast their votes tomorrow in the second phase of provincial and parliamentary elections.

Chief Election Commissioner Ayodhi Prasad Yadav urged all voters to cast their votes without any fear.

Addressing a press conference on the eve of elections, CEC Yadav said the EC had completed all poll preparations. He said proper security arrangements had also been made for elections that would choose 128 parliamentary first-past-the-post and 256 provincial FPTP candidates.

Voters will also cast their votes under the PR system for which the entire country is a constituency.

He said voters who did not have their  voter identity cards or who had lost their voter cards, could use any photo identity card issued by the  government, such as driving licence, citizenship certificate, passport, land ownership

certificates or voter ID card issued for the 2013 Constituent Assembly elections, to cast their votes.

Yadav said all voters who entered the polling centres between 7:00am and 5:00pm would be able to cast their votes.

CEC Yadav also directed all polling officers to make adequate arrangements to enable voters with disabilities, new mothers, senior citizens and incapacitated and sick voters to cast votes easily. The EC has also made provisions for the visually challenged and incapacitated voters to enable them to vote with the help of their kin after getting permission from polling officers.

The CEC said there were three types of ballot papers -- one for parliamentary FPTP election (light green), one for provincial FPTP election (black) and one for both provincial and parliamentary PR elections (red).

He said the upper part of the PR ballot paper was for the parliamentary seats and the lower part for provincial seats.

Yadav warned that if anyone was found casting vote in someone else’s name, then s/he would be penalised as

per the law.

He hoped that national and international poll observers would fully abide by Nepal’s laws, election code of conduct and code of conduct for observers.

The poll panel stated that 15,344 polling booths had been set up in 7,752 polling centres for the second phase of elections. A total of 155,000 employees have been deployed on poll duty.

As many as 1,663 candidates are contesting in the second phase of parliamentary FPTP elections and 2,819 candidates are in the fray for provincial FPTP elections.

As many as 5,848 contenders are in the fray for 110 parliamentary PR seats and 220 provincial PR seats. Altogether 12,235,993 voters can exercise their voting rights tomorrow.

The 45 districts that go to polls tomorrow are: Ilam, Tehrathum, Dhankuta, Udayapur, Jhapa, Morang and Sunsari in Province 1; Saptari, Siraha, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, Bara, Parsa and Rautahat in Province 2; Sindhuli, Makawanpur, Chitwan, Kavrepalanchowk, Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur in Province 3; Tanahun, Kaski, Syangja, Parbat, and (east of Bardaghat Susta) Nawalparasi in Province 4; Palpa, Arghakhanchi, Gulmi, Rupandehi, Kapilvastu, Dang Pyuthan, Banke, Bardiya, (west of Bardaghat Susta) Nawalparasi of Province 5; Salyan, Surkhet, and Dailekh of Province-6 and Kailali, Kanchanpur, Dadeldhura, Achham and Doti of Province 7.

The first phase of provincial and parliamentary elections was held on November 26.