Nepal: Parliamentary and Provincial polls begin today

Baglung: Nepal is today holding the first phase of Parliamentary and Provincial election under new federal structure, which it adopted in 2015 with the promulgation of the new constitution.

The simultaneous election for the Parliament and the provincial council covers 32 districts of the total 77 districts of the country, 37 constituencies of the Parliament and 74 constituencies of the Provincial Council.

A total of 702 candidates are participating in Sunday`s election fray on the basis of First Past the Post (FPTP) electoral system whose fate will be decided by 3.1 Million voters.

The first phase of polls, which covers most of the districts bordering with China or those lying on the Himalayan region, has a total of 4465 polling stations, as per the Election Commission of Nepal.

With the pre-poll violence on rise, the Government of Nepal has deployed about 64000 Nepalese Army personnel for the election who will be placed in the third or the last layer of security ring.

In addition to the army, the government has also deployed 68, 674 Nepal Police Personnel, 42, 891 Armed Police personnel and 98, 176 temporary cops for the twin phase elections.

The second phase is taking place on December 7 in 45 districts of the Tarai and hills. A total of 128 seats for the House of Representatives and 256 of the provincial assemblies are being contested in the second phase.

The vote counting of the elections will only start after the completion of the both rounds of election.The polls on Sunday opened at 7 a.m. and will close at 5 p.m.