With less than two weeks left for the House of Representatives elections scheduled for March 5, polling centres in Narpa Bhumi Rural Municipality of Manang have yet to be monitored due to harsh terrain and extreme cold.

It takes two days on foot to reach Narpa from Chame, the district headquarters. There are five polling centres in the rural municipality—three in wards 1 to 3 in Nar area and two in wards 4 and 5 in Phu area.

Chief District Officer Navaraj Paudyal said monitoring of all nine polling centres in Manang Ngisyang Rural Municipality in upper Manang was completed on Wednesday. Centres in Chame Rural Municipality and Nason Rural Municipality in lower Manang have already been inspected, but teams have been unable to reach Narpa.

A waterfall located at a higher altitude than Dharmashala has frozen and blocked the trail, halting the inspection. The site lies at an altitude of around 3,300 metres above sea level. The foot trail carved into a cliff has turned icy, and water has frozen on other sections as well, making it impassable, Paudyal said.

A total of 20 personnel from the Nepali Army, Armed Police Force and Nepal Police have been deployed with shovels and pickaxes to clear the path. Paudyal said it is yet to be confirmed whether the team dispatched on Wednesday managed to reopen the route. It takes six to seven hours on foot for security personnel to reach the site from Koto near Chame.

“Mobile phones do not work in the waterfall area. Food has been arranged for two days. It is extremely cold,” Paudyal said. “If the route opens, we will reach the polling centres within a few days.”

Earlier, security personnel were sent to assess the trail condition before the clearance team was mobilised, he said.

As travel to Narpa has become nearly impossible, the rural municipal executive has discussed temporarily relocating polling centres to the district headquarters. However, the administration said no formal recommendation was received after locals opposed the move. Without a recommendation from the municipality, a request cannot be made to the Election Commission, Paudyal said.

Narpa Bhumi Rural Municipality has 488 voters. According to District Election Officer Jeevan Kunwar, polling centres have been designated in each ward: the ward office building in ward 1, Nar Basic School in ward 2, Samduchhiring Gumba in ward 3, Phu Basic School in ward 4, and the ward office building in ward 5.