Kathmandu: Today marks the initiation of the candidacy filing process for the upcoming National Assembly (NA) member election, scheduled for January 25. The Election Commission has set the deadline for registering nomination papers at the Office of Returning Officer in all seven provinces from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm.

Spokesperson of the Election Commission, Shaligram Sharma Poudel, confirmed the completion of all necessary preparations for the registration of nominations. The election will fill 19 vacant seats in the National Assembly, and the voters include members of provincial assemblies, rural municipality chairpersons and vice-chairpersons, as well as mayors and deputy mayors of municipalities.

According to the legal provisions, the voters' list consists of 549 province assembly members and 2,047 local-level leaders (mayors/chairs and deputy mayors/vice-chairpersons). The voting weight for provincial assembly members is set at 53, while chiefs and deputy chiefs of municipalities and rural municipalities have a weight of 19. The total vote weight for province assembly members is 29,097, and for chiefs and deputy chiefs, it is 28,462.

The Election Commission published the final list of voters on Sunday. The nomination list will be unveiled on January 9, followed by the publication of the final list of candidates on January 12 after addressing protests, complaints, and investigations. Candidates will be assigned election symbols on January 13.

For the National Assembly election, one polling station and two polling centers have been designated in each province. Voting is scheduled to take place from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm on January 25. The election occurs every two years, with the term of one-third of the 59-member National Assembly concluding in each cycle. This election aims to represent women, Dalits, persons with disabilities, minorities, and members from other communities across different provinces and regions.