If official election results processed by an electronic tabulation system, at which level results are entered into an electronic tabulation system?

IFES, Election FAQs: Nepal 2022 House of Representatives and Provincial Assembly Elections November 20, 2022; accessed 2 January 2023

“At the close of polling, ballot boxes are sealed and transported by each polling station’s polling officer to the relevant returning office. A security officer accompanies the polling officer, and interested candidate agents may do so as well. After receiving all ballot boxes from the polling locations of the federal constituency, the returning officer will publish a notice specifying the date, place and time for the counting of votes. While there is no regulation specifying when counting must start, returning officers typically begin as soon as possible, within hours of the close of polling. Candidates or their agents may be present during the counting of votes. Ballots are counted under the direct supervision of the returning officer. Before vote counting begins, the ballots are counted, and the total number is recorded on a tally sheet. The total numbers of valid and invalid votes for each candidate are also recorded on a tally sheet.

The first-past-the-post (FPTP) ballots for the House of Representatives (HoR) are counted first, followed by the FPTP ballots for the Provincial Assemblies (PAs) and finally the combined proportional representation (PR) ballots for both elections. The returning officer will immediately announce the winners of the FPTP contests to all those present for the vote count. After the counting of PR ballots is complete, the results are entered into the Election Results Information Software system, which will transmit the results to the Election Commission of Nepal (ECN), where results tabulation software will aggregate the PR results. Once the results have been verified, the chief returning officer of the ECN will announce the vote count for each party for the HoR and the PAs and the number of seats won by each party. Parties will then officially nominate the winning candidates from their closed lists according to the criteria established by the ECN.”