KATHMANDU: 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 of the House of Representatives (HoR) and Provincial Assembly, and proportional representation (PR) of the HoR and Provincial Assembly in four different places simultaneously.

The EC made such directive as some ballot papers of the HoR and Provincial Assembly were mixed up in some polling stations while voting due to carelessness of the officials and voters.

The EC has planned to release the results within eight days.

In a news conference last evening, Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya said the ballot boxes were being taken to the offices of the returning officers after completing the voting from last evening and vote counting was to begin in some places, including the Kathmandu Valley, from last night itself after forging consensus among the parties.

Likewise, even helicopters would be used to safely collect the ballot boxes from the remote areas. Meanwhile, the EC has directed to immediately begin the vote counting after the collection of the ballot boxes.