Voting underway across Nepal for parliamentary elections

Voting underway across Nepal on Thursday to elect a new House of Representatives that was dissolved following violent protests in September last year. Polling is taking place in all 77 districts from 7am to 5pm in a single phase. The election is widely seen as a three-way contest, shaped by voter frustration over widespread corruption and demands for greater government accountability. Apart from corruption, job creation is a key election issue, analysts say, with around a fifth of Nepal’s population living in poverty and youth unemployment remaining high.

#WATCH | Kathmandu, Nepal: Former mayor and rapper Balendra 'Balen' Shah casts his vote at the Annapurna Vinayak School polling centre for Nepal's 2026 general election. pic.twitter.com/2NpCqogpMv

— ANI (@ANI) March 5, 2026

According to the Election Commission, a total of 18,903,689 voters are eligible to cast their ballots to determine the 275 seats of the lower house of parliament. Of the 6,541 candidates, 3,406 are vying for 165 seats under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system. The remaining 110 seats will be allocated through the proportional representation (PR) system. To conduct the polls, the commission has set up over 23,000 polling centers and more than 10,000 polling stations across the country. A large number of security personnel have been mobilized to secure the elections.