Kathmandu, Jan. 26 -- Voting is a fundamental right of every adult citizen. But if we look at turnout figures from Nepal's last two elections, around 35 percent of registered voters, on average, do not cast their ballot.

According to the Election Commission, registered voters for the 2017 federal elections totalled 15,427,731. Among them, 10,587,521 people participated in the voting process while only 9,544,744 votes were valid. The voter turnout was 68.62 percent.

In 2022, there were 17,988,570 registered voters and 11,126,226 people turned up at polling stations. Among the ballots cast, 10,560,082 were valid while 566,144 were declared invalid. This accounted for 61.85 percent voter turnout.

Despite having 2,560,839 more registered v...