November 21: The Election Commission (EC) has directed the offices of the chief returning officers to ensure vote counting of the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system as well as proportional representation (PR) of the House of Representatives (HoR) and provincial assemblies in four different places at a time.      
The EC issued such directive as some ballot papers of the HoR and provincial assemblies were mixed up in some polling stations during the voting process due to carelessness of the officials and voters.     
The EC has planned to release the results within eight days.    
In a news conference on Sunday evening, Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya said that ballot boxes were being taken to the offices of the returning officers after completing the voting on Sunday and vote counting was to begin in some places including the Kathmandu Valley from last night itself. The EC reached such decision after forging a consensus among the political parties.    
According to the EC, helicopters were used to collect the ballot boxes from remote areas.    
Meanwhile, the EC has directed to immediately begin vote counting after the collection of the ballot boxes. -- RSS