The National Assembly elections in Province 3 have ended before the scheduled time on Wednesday.

All 348 voters—110 Provincial Assembly members and 238 local level representatives—from Province 3 cast their votes by 2pm.

There are 14 candidates in fray for 8 NA seats from the province.

Chief Election Officer Bal Mukunda Dawadi informed that the vote count will begin soon after an all-party meet.

The NA election is being conducted in Province 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. Voting was not required in Province 2 where all eight candidates have been elected unopposed.

The country had a unicameral legislature after the Interim Constitution was authenticated on January 15, 2007 until the dissolution of Legislature-Parliament on October 14, 2017.

The new constitution adopted in 2015 envisages a bicameral parliament. Elections for the House of Representatives were held in November-December last year.

The election authority said the vote will clear the way for it to announce the results of the House of Representatives under the Proportional Representation (PR) category.

As many as 83 candidates from 13 parties had filed their nominations. Six of them have withdrawn from the race, the candidacy of one was revoked while 24 were elected unopposed. This has left 52 candidates vying for 32 positions, according to the EC.

With three from among women and three from the open category already elected, there will be contests only for two positions—Dalits and disabled or minority—in provinces 1 and 7.

An electoral college of Provincial Assembly members and the chiefs and deputy chiefs of the local governments votes for the members.