Kathmandu, March 25: Nearly 40 per cent of the ballots printed for the House of Representatives election held on March 5, 2026, will be destroyed after remaining unused.
Since only 59 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the election, a large number of ballots printed for both the first past the post system and the proportional representation system were left unused. These unused ballots will now be destroyed following legal procedures.
A total of 18,903,669 voters were registered for the election. The Election Commission printed seven per cent more ballots than the total number of voters through the Janak Education Materials Centre to ensure smooth voting under both electoral systems.
For the election, the Commission printed 20,323,000 ballots for the first past the post system and 20,843,000 ballots for the proportional representation system, sending a total of 41,143,000 ballots to the constituencies.
Under the first past the post system, 11,168,032 votes were cast, of which 10,509,094 votes (94.55 per cent) were valid. In the proportional representation system, 11,280,617 votes were cast, of which 10,835,025 votes (96.05 per cent) were valid.
Election Commission spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai said printing ballots in numbers higher than the voter count is a common practice. He explained that although 41,143,000 ballots were printed this time, those that remained unused will be destroyed in the respective areas as per legal provisions.
Responding to concerns raised by some people about the possibility of misuse of excess ballots and questions about the fairness of the election, Bhattarai said suspicion is natural, but there is no reason to doubt the credibility of the election. He said the Commission has already submitted its report to the President, and no political party or stakeholder has formally questioned the election process. In such a situation, he added, it is not appropriate to doubt the election merely because some ballots went unused.
Yadunath Poudel, Managing Director of Janak Education Materials Centre Limited, said the centre printed 1.3 million ballots daily as instructed by the Commission and delivered them safely within the required time. Apart from its regular work, such as printing textbooks, the centre fulfilled the national responsibility assigned to it by the Commission.
He also said the ballot printing work helped the centre offset some of its financial losses.
According to the Government Document Destruction Rules, 1970, first amendment 2013, government documents can be destroyed if the information written on them can no longer be read, understood, or used in any meaningful way.
In the 2022 House of Representatives and Provincial Assembly elections, the Commission had printed 40 million ballots for each election, and with about 62 per cent voter turnout, a large number of ballots remained unused at that time as well.
People’s News Monitoring Service
Login to add a comment