Of all the incidents recorded during this period: 50 incidents were related to unidentified groups and improvised explosive devices (IEDs); eight incidents involved the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN); two incidents entailed inter-party disputes; one incident involved a clash between political party cadres and police; two incidents concerned persons being arrested with explosive devices; one incident entailed a polling officer being arrested with 50 illegally cast votes.

The increase in incidents can be attributed to the high levels of campaign activities by major political parties, unidentified groups increasing physical attacks on candidates, and security forces increasing preemptive arrests of Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) cadres to prevent potential anti-election activities.

One major feature of the new constitution promulgated in September 2015 was the restructuring of Nepal’s local government, including the devolution of power to newly created provinces and local units. After much deliberations and contestations, the constitutionally mandated Local Level Restructuring Commission finalized 743 local units. On February 20, 2017, the Government of Nepal announced the local elections for May 14, 2017, which were later broken into three phases due to political reasons. The first phase elections in provinces without Tarai districts (Provinces 3, 4, and 6) were held on May 14, and the second phase elections in the rest of the provinces except province 2 were held on June 28. The province 2 elections across eight Tarai districts were held on September 18. Democracy Resource Center Nepal (DRCN) observed all three phases of the local elections conducted for the first time in nearly twenty years, and the first one under the new constitution and new local structures.

On September 18, 2017, the third and final phase of local elections was held in Province 2 consisting of eight Tarai districts. Voters in newly formed local units turned out in impressive numbers to elect new representatives. Democracy Resource Center Nepal (DRCN) conducted long-term and short-term observations of these elections to provide a critical and independent assessment of the electoral and political processes around the elections. This preliminary statement outlines findings and makes recommendations based on DRCN’s observation before, during, and after the third phase of local elections.

There were six election-related incidents recorded between September 29 and October 21, a period before the nomination day for first past the post (FPTP) candidates of the first phase of national and provincial elections.

There were eight election-related incidents during the third phase local-level elections counting period. This is the lowest number of incidents during a counting period for all three phases of elections. 13 election-related incidents were recorded during the first phase counting period and 14 were recorded during the second phase.

On September 18, 2017, Nepal held its third and final phase of local elections. Citizens enthusiastically voted to elect representatives to the 136 local units of Bara, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Parsa, Rautahat, Saptari, Sarlahi and Siraha districts of Province 2. Voter turnout was 77 percent. Polls happened after a number of districts in Province 2 had witnessed significant flooding in the month of August.

There were eleven election-related incidents recorded during the campaign period for the September 18 third phase of local elections that ran from September 6 to 15. This was the lowest number of incidents recorded during all three phases of elections, with 56 incidents recorded during the first phase campaign period, and 89 incidents recorded during the second phase campaign period.