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Kathmandu [Nepal]November 20 (ANI): Nepal begins voting for a new House of Representatives (HoR) and provincial assemblies, as the Himalayan nation seeks stability with regular elections.
Second general elections for the federal and provincial councils, which need to be held every five years since the promulgation of the 2015 constitution, are expected to end the political gridlock the Himalayan nation has long craved.
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Thousands of eligible voters lined up outside nearby polling centers to brave the freezing cold to exercise their right to vote. Voting begins at 7:00 am (local time) and will end at 5:00 pm (local time).
The Election Commission operates 22,000 227 voting centers across the country for its 18,879,570 eligible voters. In order to hold the elections smoothly, as many as 2, 45, 960 officials and security personnel have been deployed across the country.
In the field, a total of 2 and 412 candidates for the First Task Force (FPTP), while 2 and 199 candidates from Proportional Representation (PR) are vying for the 275-seat House of Representatives. A total of 165 members will be selected from the FPTP system, while 110 members will be selected from the PR system.
For provincial assemblies, there are 3,224 candidates from FPTP and 3,708 candidates from proportional seats. All seven provincial councils in the Himalayan country have a total of 550 seats, of which 330 seats will be elected from the FPTP and 220 seats will be elected through the PR system.
Nepal’s president, Bidya Devi Bhandari, issued a press release on the eve of the election urging active participation in Sunday’s election, calling voting the highest exercise of civil rights.
President Bhandari urged the public to actively participate in the one-off elections for the House of Representatives and Provincial Councils across the country.
She expressed her belief that through elections held in a fair, fearless and free environment, democratic institutions and institutions will gradually become more responsive to the people.
President Bhandari said the elections would help create the good governance and transparency that the people are looking for. She added that national goals of peace, stability and prosperity can be achieved through a healthy and strong democracy.
Nepal’s federal and provincial elections were held in three phases for the first time in 2017, with a voter turnover rate of 68.7%. The Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist-Leninists (CPN-UML) won nearly half of the seats in parliament.
CPN-UML chairman, KP Sharma Oli became prime minister after winning the three-tier election. Still, the government fell before Oli could complete his three years in power. Intra-party disputes that led to the split of CPN-UML further plunged the country into a political crisis, with Oli twice dissolving parliament sparking a constitutional crisis.
The current government led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba (Nepalese Congress) was established as a caretaker government with the support of the CPN-Maoist Center and the CPN-United Socialist Party (a split party of the CPN-UML).
Thanks to Sunday’s election, the Nepalese parliament, CPN-Maoist Centre, CPN-UNP and Loktantrik Samajbadi have formed an alliance, while the opposition CPN-UML is competing on several fronts with the Rastriya Prajatantra and Janata Samajbadi parties.
Nepal will begin the process of electing a new prime minister shortly after the votes are counted after Sunday’s post-election. By convention, the party president or the leaders of parliamentary committees will form the government after securing a 50 percent majority in parliament. (Arnie)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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