Elections 2022
An estimated 18.6 million voters – a million of them first-timers – are expected to cast their ballots in the November 20 elections for federal parliament and provincial assemblies, says the Election Commission.
A detailed election schedule, including the date for filing the nomination papers for elections, remains yet to be announced. The Chief Election Commissioner, Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, said the EC has already swung into action and would be able to hold both the elections in one-go.
Thapaliya, flanked by senior officials, announced the commission’s readiness to hold elections in a free and fair manner, hours after the government nodded November 20 as a suitable date to hold elections to federal parliament and provincial assemblies.
The federal parliament’s House of Representatives consists of 275 MPs. Of them, 165 are elected under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system and 110 under the proportional representation (PR) system.
Seven Provincial Assemblies have a total of 550 members, out of whom 330 are elected under FPTP and the remaining 220 under the PR system.
The Commission's position that the sitting members of Parliament will remain in office till moments before the FPTP candidates file their nomination papers or until the political parties submit their name lists for the PR seats, however, is expected to stir intense debate in the run-up to the big elections.
The elections are more than three months away, and the countdown has just begun.
