Nepal is all set to hold elections to the House of Representatives (HoR) and Province Assembly on Sunday.
This is the second time Nepal is having general elections after the promulgation of a new Constitution in 2015.
According to the Election Commission (EC), the voting for the polls will take place from 7 am to 5 pm. Kamal Bhattarai, assistant spokesperson for the EC said that Voters are prohibited from taking mobile phones or cameras inside the polling station.
There are 1, 79, 88,570 eligible voters. At least 22,227 polling stations have been set up in 10,892 across the country.
The assistant spokesperson said that the EC printed 8,4,21,500 ballot papers and has already dispatched them to the respective polling stations. "We have already sent election materials to the polling stations," he said.
A total of 5,636 candidates will contest the elections to the lower house and the Provincial Assembly under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) category, with 5,907 seats set aside for proportional representation (PR) category in the final closed list.
According to the assistant spokesperson, 2, 46,960 government employees have been mobilized during elections.
A total of 298,589 security personnel have been deployed to guard voting booths. Of them, 74,849 are from the Nepal Army, 71,693 from the Nepal Police, 35,116 from the Armed Police Force, 115,000 temporary police, and 1,921 from the National Intelligence Department.
According to Bhattarai, 7,219 individuals representing national and international organizations have taken permission to observe the polls.
The chief election commissioners of India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Maldives and election commissioners of Sri Lanka and South Korea have arrived in Kathmandu to observe elections. Japan's State Minister of Foreign Affairs Takei Shunsuke and representatives of Kathmandu-based 18 diplomatic missions will also observe the elections.
Nepal-India and Nepal-China border points have been sealed for 72 hours starting Thursday, in view of the elections.
