Voting begins for 19 National Assembly seats

Voting for the election to fill the seats of 19 upper house members who are retiring from March 4 has begun.

The voting began at 9 am and the voters will be able to cast their ballots in the designated polling stations of the provinces till 3 pm.

The province assembly members, rural municipality chairs and vice chairs, municipality mayors and deputy mayors will cast their vote in the election.

As per the law, the election has to be held 35 days before the end of the tenure of the members.

There will be an electoral college comprising members of the Province Assembly and chairperson and vice-chairperson of the rural municipality and mayor and deputy mayor of the municipality.

The weightage of a vote from Province Assembly members is 53 while it is 19 of a vote from chairpersons and vice-chairpersons of the rural municipalities and mayors and deputy mayors of municipalities. With this, the total vote weightage will be 57,559.

A total of 1,958 voters, including 549 provincial assembly members and chiefs and deputy chiefs of local levels, will cast their votes in the election.