The Election Commission is holding bypolls on Sunday in three constituencies—Bara-2, Tanahun-1 and Chitwan-2—to elect members to the House of Representatives.

Deputy Spokesperson for the Election Commission Guru Prasad Wagle said in a statement on Saturday that the preparations for the by-elections have been completed.

According to the Election Commission, the voting will take place from 7 am to 5 pm.

Although the bypolls are being held only in three constituencies, election fever has gripped the entire nation as there will be competition among noted politicians and personalities such as the Janata Samajbadi Party Chairman Upendra Yadav, Rastriya Swatantra Party President Rabi Lamichhane, Congress leader Govinda Bhattarai, economist Swarnim Wagle and retired senior police officers, Sarbendra Khanal and Ramesh Kharel.

Meanwhile, the Home Ministry has already declared a public holiday in the three constituencies.

In Tanahun-1, economist Wagle, Nepali Congress leader Bhattarai and UML’s Sarbendra Khanal are competing to be elected to the lower house. Wagle quit the Congress to join the newly-emerged Rastriya Swatantra Party last month.

In Chitwan-2, Rastriya Swatantra Party chair Rabi Lamichhane is contesting against Jit Narayan Shrestha from the Nepali Congress and Ram Prasad Neupane, the district chapter chair of the UML. In Bara-2, prominent Madhesh leader Upendra Yadav is contesting against Janamat Party’s Shiv Chandra Kushwaha and UML’s Purushottam Paudel.

Both the traditional and new political parties have aggressively campaigned and prepared for the bypolls and have made the elections a matter of prestige. There is a clear indication that the electoral contests are going to be intense. With political parties adopting every possible means to woo the voters, top leaders of the ruling coalition, including Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba, have gone as far as to provide their candidates with ministerial berths if they win the by-elections.

Ramchandra Paudel, who got elected from Tanahun-1, and Ramsahay Prasad Yadav, who had won from Bara-2, resigned from their lawmaker positions after getting elected as the President and Vice President of Nepal, respectively.

House seat from Chitwan-2 became vacant after the Supreme Court invalidated the lawmaker status of Rastriya Swatantra Party chair Lamichhane, stating that the citizenship certificate he had submitted to contest the November polls was invalid.