Nepal: Voting underway to elect 18 National Assembly members

Voting to elect 18 members of Nepal National Assembly is underway in the seven states of the country. Nepal National Assembly is the upper house of the Himalayan state and a total of 2,056 voters will vote to elect the new members. According to media reports, 550 out of the 2,056 voters are from state assembly and 1,506 are mayors, deputy mayors, chairpersons, and vice-chairpersons at local levels. 

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The term of 19 members of the 59-seat assembly will end on March 3, 2020. The elections are being held for 18 posts while one will be nominated by the President on the recommendation by the government of the day, Nepal's constitutional provision states. Nepal's Election Commission has assigned district judges as returning officers for the election. The National Assembly election is taking place in district headquarters of seven states where respective high courts are located. These seven district headquarters are Doti, Morang, Kaski, Surkhet, Dang, Dhanusha, and Lalitpur. 

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Nepal's election commission has directed all the election officers to take preventive measures in the counting of votes as there should not be any place for mistakes. “The more the election is free and fair, credible and acceptable to all, the more the governance system would become responsible, transparent, public-oriented and upright,” the Commission stated in a release. 
 

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2017 Legislative election

Currently, the ruling government of Nepal Communist Party holds the majority in the upper house of the country, which is the National Assembly. The Communist Party of Nepal has 42 out of the 59 seats, while the principal opposition Nepali Congress has 13 seats in the house. Nepal held its legislative election in 2017 that saw Communist party leader KP Oli getting elected as Prime Minister. The voting took place in two phases on November 26 and December 7 to elect 275 members in the House of Representatives. The Nepal Communist Party won 174 seats in the lower house of the parliament while the Nepali Congress won 63. 

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