Valley
Poll body defines National Assembly election process
Both the single transferable voting and first-past-the-post systems will be adopted to elect 56 members of the National Assembly by an electoral college comprising Provincial Assembly members and chiefs and deputy chiefs of the local federal units.Both the single transferable voting and first-past-the-post systems will be adopted to elect 56 members of the National Assembly by an electoral college comprising Provincial Assembly members and chiefs and deputy chiefs of the local federal units.
According to the constitution, the upper house has 59 members—three of them appointed by the President on the government’s recommendation. Polling has been scheduled for February 7.
According to the Election Commission (EC), only 42 members will be elected under the single transferable voting (STV) system while 14 are elected directly.
Of the eight members to be elected from each province, six including three women are elected under the STV system while one each from Dalit and disabled or minority communities are picked from the FPTP system.
“Votes cannot be transferred from one candidate to another for candidates from Dalit and disabled or minority communities due to their single seats,” said EC Spokesperson Navaraj Dhakal.
The EC plans to use four ballot papers and four or eight ballot boxes in the vote. One of the papers will be for women, one for the open category, and one each for Dalit and disabled or minority communities.
The number of ballot boxes will be determined after deciding whether to allocate separate boxes for provincial assembly members, and the chiefs and deputy chiefs of the local governments, said Dhakal.
The weight of each vote to be cast by a provincial assembly member and by the chief or deputy chief of municipalities and rural municipalities is different.
According to the Ordinance on National Assembly Elections, weight of a vote cast by provincial lawmakers is 48 while it is 18 in case of the chiefs and deputy chiefs.
The EC is arranging for two differently coloured ballot papers for the categories. There will be a total of 2,056 voters—550 provincial assembly members and 1,506 chiefs and deputy chiefs of the local level.
Province 2 has the highest number of voters. With 272 voters from the local level and 107 from the assembly, the province has the highest value in National Assembly election. Its weight is 10,032, followed by 9,564 of Province 3.