Nepal is gearing up for elections on March 5, with political parties campaigning aggressively across the Himalayan nation. Early general elections will be held to elect all 275 members of the country's House of Representatives.
The date was announced on September 12 last year by Ram Chandra Poudel, the President of Nepal.
How does Nepal vote and how are votes counted?
Nepal uses a mixed electoral system, which means voters cast two separate ballots on election day.
First ballot
In the first ballot, the country is divided into 165 constituencies. Under Article 84(1) of the Constitution of Nepal, the country is divided into single-member constituencies.
This means voters choose one candidate from their local constituency, and the one who gets the highest number of votes wins. This system is called First-Past-The-Post (FPTP).
Second ballot
Apart from the 165 members elected directly, the remaining 110 members of Nepal's House of Representatives are chosen through the Proportional Representation (PR) system. The entire country acts as one single constituency for this vote.
Before the voting day, each political party submits a closed list of candidates to the Election Commission of Nepal. Seats are distributed to parties based on the percentage of votes they receive nationwide.
For example, if a party wins 20 per cent of the PR vote, it gets around 20 per cent of the 110 seats. The Constitution requires that different groups, such as women, Dalits, indigenous nationalities, and other marginalised communities, be fairly represented in Parliament through this system.
Why early polls
Nepal is going for early elections after mass demonstrations, led by Gen Z, broke out in September 2025, against the government's failure to tackle corruption and crony politics.
The sustained protest movement put enormous pressure on the government, and then-prime minister K P Sharma Oli resigned in September 2025.
