Candidates contesting next month’s National Assembly election will have to file their nominations on January 7.

Making the detailed election schedule public, the Election Commission has set January 3 for the publication of the voters' list, with the final list published three days later. The government, on October 29, had decided to hold the upper house elections on January 25. The poll will elect 18 out of 19 members that retire on March 4, 2026.

Voting will take place between 9 am and 3 pm on January 25, reads the election schedule. The election results will be published on the voting day.

A third of the 59 members of the upper house retire biennially, requiring a vote to elect their replacements.

According to records at the parliament secretariat, the highest number, 8, of retiring lawmakers are from the CPN-UML. It is followed by the CPN (Maoist Centre), whose seven members complete their terms in the next four years. An upper house member has a six-year tenure. One member each from CPN (Unified Socialist), the Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal, and the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party too retire on March 4.

The Maoist Centre and the Unified Socialist have merged to form the Nepali Communist Party.

The term of Bamdev Gautam, a nominated member, too ends on the same date. The President will nominate his replacement on the government's recommendation.

The Nepali Congress, the second largest party in the upper house, has no member retiring on the date. The constitution envisions the National Assembly as a permanent chamber of Parliament. While the lower house was dissolved on September 12, the upper house is in existence.

Also completing the term from the UML is Bimala Ghimire, vice-chair of the House.

Indira Devi Gautam, who was elected from the women’s cluster of Koshi Province; Gopal Bhattarai, elected from Lumbini Province; and Tulsa Kumari Dahal, elected from the women’s cluster of Madhesh Province, Debendra Dahal, elected from Koshi Province, Bhagawati Neupane from the women’s cluster in Gandaki Province, Sharada Devi Bhatta from the women’s cluster in Sudurpaschim Province, and Sumitra BC from Karnali Province are other UML members retiring.

Those completing their tenure from the Maoist Centre are Gopi Bahadur Sarki Achhami, elected from the Dalit cluster in Koshi Province; Ganga Kumari Belbase from the women’s cluster in Bagmati Province, and Jag Prasad Sharma from the disability and minority community cluster in Lumbini Province. Others having their terms ended are Taraman Swar from the Other cluster in Sudurpashchim Province, Narayan Kaji Shrestha from Gandaki Province, Maya Prasad Sharma from Karnali Province, and Radheshyam Paswan from the Dalit cluster in Madhesh Province. Shrestha is the immediate past senior vice-chair of the largest party in the House.

An electoral college of the provincial assembly members and the heads and deputies of municipalities and rural municipalities will vote to elect the members of the upper house. There are 2,047 voters. However, they have different electoral weights. The Election Commission has set the electoral weight for provincial assembly members at 53, while the weight for local government heads and their deputies is 19.

Currently, the Maoist Centre, with 17 seats, is the largest party in the upper house, while the Congress is second with 16. With 10 seats, the UML is a distant third, and Unified Socialist is fourth with 8.

However, the current dynamics would change hugely if the parties contested the elections without forming alliances. The Maoist Centre, which has benefited hugely due to its alliance either with the UML or the Congress in the past, will bear huge losses as it doesn’t have the highest vote weightage in any provinces except Karnali. This means it will not win any seats in the other six provinces. The UML has the highest weightage of votes in Koshi, Bagmati and Gandaki while the Congress is ahead in Madhesh, Lumbini and Sudurpaschim.