Nepal EC adds 168 new polling stations for March 5 elections

Kathmandu: Nepal’s election commission has added 168 new polling stations for the March 5 general election, raising their total number to 10,967, as it also removed 93 outdated or impractical sites, officials said on Sunday.

According to Election Commission (EC) Spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai, the nationwide review aimed to improve voter access and address long-standing issues such as inaccurate station names, outdated addresses, and locations that were difficult for voters to access. Some booths were merged or shifted to more suitable sites. The increase in polling stations comes due to a surge in voter numbers. Till November 21 -- the last day for new voter registration -- 837,094 new voters had been added. There were 18,168,000 eligible voters in the country during the last general election in 2022.