KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 19

Parliamentary and Provincial Assembly polls will be held tomorrow between 7:00am to 5:00pm.

Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya has urged all voters to fearlessly exercise their voting rights on Election Day.

Speaking at a press conference held here today, Thapaliya said the polls panel had completed all preparations for voting.

He said the EC had adopted all measures to hold the elections in free, fair and impartial manner.

The EC will strictly enforce election laws and election code of conduct to ensure free and fair polls.

The EC has appealed to the private sector to give holiday so that voters employed in the private sector can exercise their voting rights.

The government has announced holiday for November 20 and 21.

Thapaliya said that his office had issued necessary directives to polling officers, government employees deployed for poll duty, and security personnel to take necessary action against those who try to deprive voters of their voting rights, create trouble during the voting process by preventing voters from going to polling centres, intimidate voters, seize election materials, or cast bogus votes or carry out any prohibited activities. The EC is committed to ensuring the election process is guided by ideology and fair play and not allowimg anybody to mar the election environment or challenge the election sanctity.

Thapaliya said the EC expected all stakeholders' to assist the polls panel to hold the election in free, fair and impartial manner.

President Bidhya Devi Bhandari has also issued a message on the eve of the parliamentary and provincial elections urging voters to enthusiastically take part in tomorrow's elections. The head of state said that voting was the highest exercise of civil rights. The president said that tomorrow's elections would play an important role in institutionalising the federal republican order in the country. She expressed the belief that the democratic system and institutions would gradually become more accountable to the public through the general elections where voters cast their votes in free, fair and independent manner. It is a beautiful aspect of democracy that the country is governed by elected representatives, she said. She added the election reflected the fact that people were the source of real state power.

The president also said the elections would help ensure good governance and transparency the people are looking for. She added that healthy and strengthened democracy also could help the country achieve the goals of peace, stability and prosperity.

A total of 17,988,570 voters, including 9,140,806 males are eligible to vote tomorrow.

There are 10,892 polling centres and 22,227 polling booths across the country. A total of 450,000 temporary voters will cast their votes under the proportional representation system at 141 temporary polling centres or nearby polling centres. Temporary voters include government employees, security personnel deployed for poll duty, and prisoners who get the chance to vote under the PR election system after the Supreme Court issued a writ of mandamus telling the EC to ensure temporary voters' right under PR election system.

There are 2,412 candidates in the House of Representatives election race under the first-past-the-post election system contesting 165 seats. There are 2,199 candidates contesting under the PR election system for 110 HoR seats.

There are 3,224 candidates who are contesting Provincial Assembly elections under the FPTP system. As many as 3,708 candidates are trying their luck under the PR election system.

A version of this article appears in the print on November 20, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.