Nepal votes 2022: Frustrated with mainstream parties, many voters stay away from polling booths

Observers say a variety of other reasons have contributed to the low turnout of voters at federal parliament and provincial assemblies elections.

NL Today

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Kathmandu: The elections for the members of federal parliament and provincial assemblies concluded at 5 PM today. But the voters’ participation, according to initial estimation, remained much much lower than expected.

The low turnout in the parliamentary and provincial assembly elections is not a good sign for the country’s democracy. 

The voter turnout in the last elections in 2017 was around 70 percent. According to the observers, this can be taken as a growing frustration among voters. The voter turnout for 2008 and 2013 Constituent Assembly elections were over 60 and 78 percent, respectively.

The initial estimation gathered from Nepal Live Today shows that the turnout was much less than in the previous elections. 

There are, according to observers, a variety of reasons for the frustration among people. “People are fed up with corruption, nepotism and bad governance practices by powerful leaders. They tend to believe that things will remain the same even if they cast votes or not.”