On Thursday (5th March), voting took place across Nepal to elect 275 members of the House of Representatives. The election is being held after a youth-led ‘Gen Z movement’ (aka regime change operation) in September 2025 triggered political upheaval in the country.
The protests eventually led to the collapse of the coalition government headed by KP Sharma Oli and the dissolution of the lower house.
#InPics | Nepal is voting today in a general election, the first after Gen Z protests last year against corruption led to the deaths of 77 people and forced the Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli-led government to resign.#NepalElections #Nepal pic.twitter.com/BlDYgVqjoY
— NDTV (@ndtv) March 5, 2026
The polling is being held in a single phase in all 77 districts of Nepal. The voting has begun at 7 am this morning, and the process will continue until 5 pm.
The Election Commission of Nepal states that over 18,903,689 people are eligible to vote in this election. Compared with the last election in 2022, the number of voters has increased by 915,119.
The people who have the right to vote are mostly young. The age group of the voters falls in the range of 52% who are between the ages of 18 and 40 years.
The election features a total of 6,541 candidates. Out of them, 3,406 candidates, including 1,143 independents, are contesting 165 seats under the first-past-the-post system. Another 3,135 candidates from 63 political parties are competing for the remaining 110 seats through the proportional representation system.
To conduct the voting process smoothly, authorities have set up 23,112 polling centres across 10,963 polling stations in the country. Security arrangements have also been strengthened, with 341,113 personnel deployed for the election.
Acting Chief Election Commissioner Ram Prasad Bhandari said all preparations were completed in advance to ensure that the voting process remains free, fair and peaceful. He also appealed to voters to come forward and cast their votes without fear.
Officials said the counting of votes will start after the voting process is completed, and it is expected that the results of the first-past-the-post election will be announced within 24 hours after counting begins.
