Kathmandu, 5 March: The Election Commission has prepared to start counting votes for the House of Representatives member elections immediately after voting concludes. The commission stated that ballot boxes from all polling stations will be collected and transported to the returning officer’s office right after voting ends, and counting will commence as soon as political consensus is reached.
The House of Representatives Member Election Act, 2074, provides that after voting is completed at all polling stations designated for a particular constituency, the returning officer shall designate the location, date, and time for vote counting and publish a notice. Candidates or election representatives will be present at the specified counting location, date, and time.
Acting Chief Election Commissioner Ram Prasad Bhattarai has claimed that counting for the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system will be completed within 24 hours of commencement. Although the commission makes such claims in every election, counting in constituencies with larger voter populations typically takes more than two days to complete. However, counting in constituencies with fewer voters is often completed on the same day as voting. In constituencies like Manang, which is a single constituency where ballot boxes from all polling stations are collected immediately after voting concludes, results usually come in by midnight. With 7,000 voters in Manang and 11,328 in Mustang, results could come in by midnight if ballot boxes are collected immediately after voting.
Counting Process
According to the House of Representatives Member (Counting) Directive, 2082, the returning officer will prepare a record of the commencement of counting after obtaining signatures from election representatives. The counting process begins by checking each ballot box – whether it has been opened or tampered with, whether the polling station name, security seal number, and box number are mentioned, and whether the security seal on the box’s closure is intact. After verification, all ballots from the boxes are emptied onto the counting table or area and bundled into stacks of 50 or 100 ballots to begin counting.
If any irregularities are found in a ballot box during verification, the directive states that such boxes should be kept in a secure place with details recorded. After counting ballots from boxes without irregularities, consensus should be reached regarding boxes with irregularities before counting them.
According to the House of Representatives Member Personnel Management Directive, 2082, six personnel will be deployed for counting in each constituency. The directive specifies deployment of one Chief Counting Officer, one Assistant Counting Officer, one Computer Operator, and two Counting Assistants, totaling six personnel. Each counting team must count at least 1,500 ballots per shift for the Proportional Representation (PR) system and at least 3,000 ballots per shift for the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) system.
Provisions Regarding Invalid Votes
The counting directive clearly specifies under what circumstances a ballot paper becomes invalid. Disputes often arise during counting regarding valid or invalid votes. According to the directive, ballots without the signature of the concerned presiding officer, those marked with a fingerprint or any symbol other than the swastika symbol designated by the commission, ballots smudged or torn such that the voting indication is unclear, ballots marked outside the box containing the candidate or party’s election symbol, and ballots with separate markings in boxes of more than one candidate or party will be considered invalid.
