Nava Thakuria
Guwahati: Polling peacefully concluded in the Himalayan nation of Nepal this evening (5 March 2026) to elect a new Parliament in Kathmandu amid tight security cover where over 60 % of 19 million Nepali electors cast their votes. Nepal Election Commission established 23,112 polling centres under 10,963 polling stations across 77 districts of the south Asian nation where voting started at 7 am (NPT, which is 15 minutes ahead of Indian standard time). The voting under a single phase polling concluded at 5 pm under the security cover of 341,113 security personnel including 149,000 temporary election police personnel.
Counting of ballot papers also began to identify the winners for filling up 275 seats in the House of Representatives. Every voter was allowed to cast two votes, one for his/her preferred candidates and other for parties. A total of 3,406 candidates, representing over 65 political parties and 1,143 independent contestants, remained in the fray for 165 seats under the first-past-the-post system, while another 3,135 candidates were vying for 110 seats through the proportional representation system.
Front runners for the post of Prime Minister include Balendra Shah (popularly known Balen) of Rastriya Swatantra Party, KP Sharma Oli of Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist), Gagan Thapa of Nepali Congress and Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda of Nepali Communist Party. Amazingly, both Shah and Oli are contesting from the same constituency (Jhapa-5 in eastern Nepal), which is adjacent to Siliguri corridor (also known as Chicken’s neck). Once the election outcomes come out and the winner takes power, the term of interim government led by retired Nepal Supreme Court chief justice Sushila Karki will be concluded.
She accepted the responsibility last year during September when the deadly anti-corruption agitation by the Nepali youths compelled the Oli-led government alliance government of CPN-UML and Nepali Congress. Casting her votes in a Kathmandu polling station in the morning hours, Ms Karki expressed her happiness that election day passed without any bloodshed. Earlier, she addressed the nation on Monday ahead of Holi and national elections urging the citizens to exercise the franchise maintaining peace and harmony. Ms Karki asserted that the government and election authorities were fully prepared to conduct the polling in a fair, free and fearless manner.
Mainstream political outfit Rastriya Prajatantra Party, during campaigning, had raised voices for bringing back the constitutional monarchy and restoring Nepal’s political status of a Sanatani Hindu Rashtra. The right-wing party, which has fielded a number of candidates across the country, used to organize public rallies supporting the last Nepal king, Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, who now leads a private life in Kathmandu after dethroning from the palace nearly two decades back. Now a section of hardcore Hindu nationalists demands the restoration of monarchy even as a ceremonial head of Nepal (in place of the President). The pro-monarchists often hit the streets waving national flags, placards and chanting slogans, whenever the septuagenarian royal scion visits rural areas.
