Electronic Voting Ruled Out for Upcoming Elections, Ballot Printing Begins Next Week
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Kathmandu: It has been confirmed that electronic voting will not be used in the upcoming House of Representatives elections scheduled for 5 March, 2026. The Election Commission has moved ahead with final preparations to print ballot papers, effectively ruling out the use of voting technology once again.
Although Minister for Communications and Information Technology Jagadish Kharel has repeatedly said that electronic voting is possible at a low cost if political parties reach a consensus, the commission has proceeded with preparations for traditional paper ballots. Citing technical limitations and time constraints, the commission has closed the chapter on electronic voting for this election.
The commission is preparing to assign the responsibility of printing ballot papers to the government-owned Janak Education Materials Center. According to Kul Bahadur GC, Under-Secretary and Assistant Spokesperson of the commission, printing of ballot papers for the proportional representation system will begin from 31 December.
“Preparations for printing ballot papers have reached the final stage. We will start printing proportional ballot papers from the 16th, and it is certain that there will be no electronic voting this time,” GC told TechPana.
As per the election schedule, political parties must submit their closed lists of candidates on December 28 and 29. After that, the commission will finalize ballot paper samples and send them for printing. Two types of ballot papers, direct and proportional, will be printed for all 165 constituencies. The commission said there is no need to procure new ballot boxes or paper, as existing stock is sufficient.
The Election Commission has long faced criticism for avoiding electronic voting, often citing a lack of political readiness. Ram Prasad Rimal, director of Ballot Solution Pvt. Ltd., which used indigenous electronic voting machines at the recently concluded 11th general convention of the CPN-UML, said the commission itself lacks willingness.
“Political parties use electronic machines to elect their leaders at party conventions, but the commission refuses to accept them in general elections. This is the commission’s weakness,” Rimal said. He argued that even if nationwide implementation was not possible, the commission could have tested around 700 machines in selected areas. He added that electronic voting is cost-effective, noting that a single machine costs around Rs 200,000 and the investment could be recovered within two elections.
There were around 18 million voters in the 2079 BS elections. This time, more than one million new voters have been added. According to commission spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai, the total number of voters is estimated to exceed 19 million, with 1,016,754 new voters added.
A total of 114 political parties have registered for the upcoming elections. While 100 parties applied to contest under the proportional representation system, the commission has allocated 93 election symbols, as seven parties will contest jointly.
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