Voting is underway across Nepal on Thursday for the House of Representatives elections, held after the September Gen Z movement led to the fall of the KP Sharma Oli-led coalition government and the dissolution of the lower house.

Polling is taking place in all 77 districts from 7am to 5pm in a single phase.

The Election Commission said all arrangements were in place to ensure free, fair and peaceful voting. Acting Chief Election Commissioner Ram Prasad Bhandari urged voters to cast their ballots without fear.

A total of 18,903,689 voters are eligible to elect 275 members of the House of Representatives. The figure is up by 915,119 from the 2022 elections. Of them, 52 percent are aged between 18 and 40.

There are 6,541 candidates in the fray. Under the first-past-the-post system, 3,406 candidates are contesting 165 seats, including 1,143 independents. For the 110 proportional representation seats, 3,135 candidates are listed under 63 parties.

The commission has set up 23,112 polling centres at 10,963 polling stations nationwide. A total of 341,113 security personnel, including 149,000 temporary election police, have been deployed.

The commission said it aims to publish first-past-the-post results within 24 hours after counting begins.