Kathmandu, September 6

The Election Commission today said that nominations for September 18 elections were filed today in all 136 local levels of eight districts of Province 2 without any untoward incident.

The poll panel said candidates of all major political parties, fringe parties, independent candidates, women and Dalit candidates enthusiastically turned  up at the offices of chief returning officers and returning officers of their respective local levels to file their nominations for the third phase of local polls.

The EC  had urged candidates to file their nominations between 10:00am and 5:00pm today, but in some places it allowed filing of nomination papers till  late in the evening.

According to a press release issued by EC Spokesperson Nabaraj Dhakal, the EC let candidates who entered  offices of chief returning officers by 5:00pm file their nominations.

According to an EC estimate, at least 18,200 candidates had filed their  nomination papers by 6:30pm.

The EC said 6,627 representatives would be elected by 2,664,950 eligible voters of Province 2.

The 136 local levels in Province 2 include one metropolitan city, three sub-metropolitan cities, 73 municipalities and 59 rural municipalities in eight districts --  Parsa, Bara, Rautahat, Saptari, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Siraha and Sarlahi.

As many as 2,166 polling stations and 3,578 polling centres have been set up for elections, according to the EC. Apart from security personnel, 31,500 government employees will be mobilised for poll duty.