Nepalese are going to elect new representatives in the local levels on today Friday (May 13). This is the second such election after the nation became a federal republic and fifth after 1991 and 10 since the start of first local level elections in 1948.

A total of 17,733,723 voters are participating in this democratic exercise. They will elect 35,221 representatives for six metropolitan cities, 11 sub-metropolitan cities, 276 municipalities and 460 rural municipalities from among 145,011 candidates on the day.

It is the second local level election after the promulgation of the new constitution in 2015 and the fifth after the political change of 1990. Even during the Panchayat period, especially after the national referendum of 1981, Nepalis had exercised this democratic method of choosing their representatives through ballots.

However, due to the political instability in the country, local level elections were held only twice from 1992 -- in 1992 and 1997 -- to 2017.

The last election was held in 2017 when the local polls under the new constitution were held in three phases -- May 14, June 28 and September 18. The participation of the people in 2017 local poll was encouraging as average turnout of voters was 74.87.

.According to the Election Commission, it has set up 10,756 polling stations and 21,955 voting booths across the country for the voters to cast their votes.

Likewise, 165,000 security personnel including 32,000 personnel from the Armed Police Force, 62,000 from Nepal Police, 71,500 from Nepali Army and 100,000 temporary police have been mobilised for the security of the polling stations, booths, voters and the vote counting centres, according to the Home Ministry.

PM Deuba And Indian PM Modi To Jointly Attend Prayer At The Mayadevi Temple

At the invitation of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay an official visit to Lumbini, Nepalon 16 May 2022.

The Prime Minister of India will attend the special ceremony on the auspicious occasion of Buddha Jayantiin Lumbini.

The Prime Minister of India together with the Prime Minister of Nepal will participate in a prayer at the Mayadevi Temple, lay the foundation stone for the construction of a centre for Buddhist culture and heritage at the Monastic Zone in Lumbini, and address the special ceremony to be organized to celebrate Buddha Jayanti at the Lumbini International Buddhist Meditation Center and Assembly Hall.

Dr. Narayan Khadka, Minister for Foreign Affairs, will call on Prime Minister of

India Narendra Modi. While in Lumbini, the two Prime Ministers will hold bilateral talks and exchange views on Nepal-India cooperation and matters of mutual interests.

The Prime Minister of Nepal will host a luncheon in honour of the Prime Minister of India and the visiting delegation.

According to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the upcoming visit of the Prime Minister of India will contribute to further strengthening the bilateral relations and the age-old socio-cultural bonds between the two countries. This will be the fifth visit of Narendra Modi to Nepal as the Prime Minister of India.