KATHMANDU: Barring a few minor incidents, voting for the House of Representatives election was conducted peacefully and enthusiastically across the country on Thursday.

Voting began at 7:00 am and concluded at 5:00 pm as scheduled by the Election Commission. Commissioner Janaki Kumari Tuladhar said that although the official voting time ended at 5:00 pm, voters who were still in line at polling stations by that time would be allowed to cast their ballots.

According to the Election Commission, no polling center has formally declared a suspension of voting so far.

Brief disputes were reported and resolved in Dolakha, Sarlahi, and Rautahat. Voting, which had been temporarily halted at the Malu polling station in Tamakoshi-4 of Dolakha, resumed and concluded peacefully. The Election Commission stated that it will provide detailed updates at a press conference scheduled for 6:15 pm today.

Under the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) system, 65 political parties are competing under 61 election symbols. A total of 3,406 candidates are contesting under the FPTP category — 3,017 men, 388 women, and one candidate from the other gender category.

Under the Proportional Representation (PR) system, 3,135 candidates are in the race — 1,363 men and 1,772 women. Elections were held for 165 constituencies under the FPTP system and 110 seats under the PR system.

There are 18,903,689 registered voters in this election — 9,663,358 men, 9,240,131 women, and 200 from other gender categories.

A total of 186,142 temporary voters have been registered. For the election, 10,967 polling locations and 23,112 polling centers were set up nationwide, along with 143 temporary polling stations. Special priority arrangements were made to facilitate voting for senior citizens, persons with disabilities, the infirm, and pregnant women.

For election security, 79,727 personnel from the Nepali Army, 75,797 from Nepal Police, 34,567 from the Armed Police Force, 1,921 from National Investigation, and 149,090 temporary election police personnel were deployed across the country.