The Curious Citizens

What is the Curious Citizen?

The Curious Citizen is a series designed by the School of Social Sciences of Thames International College in an effort to create an open, safe, and interactive space for asking questions, learning, and relearning socio-political issues and structures. The Curious Citizen curates sessions for discussions and workshops, helping students and faculty navigate the complex landscapes of politics, legal frameworks, policies, and other issues at both national and international levels.

Why is the “Curious Citizen” important?

• Addresses the need for a judgment-free space when educating ourselves about politics.
• Satisfies curiosity with discussion and meaningful interactions with other curious thinkers.
• Encourages critical thinking by promoting discussion and analysis, rather than blindly accepting information from media and other sources.
• Cultivates learning for the purpose of building knowledge and understanding, rather than simply preparing for exams.

The School of Social Sciences organized a series of sessions under the curious citizens:

1.About “Beyond the Ballot Box: Decoding Nepal’s Electoral System”

A lot of students were excited to vote in this election. For young people, this election held a deep meaning. It held rage. It held fear. But it also held hope. “Beyond The Ballot Box: Decoding Nepal’s Electoral System." was a session focused on addressing students' inquiries about the parties, the voting system and how the mechanisms work.

On February 22, 2026, an event titled “Beyond The Ballot Box: Decoding Nepal’s Electoral System” was conducted, where our guest speaker, Mr. Kamal Dev Bhattarai, delivered a speech on the electoral system in light of the upcoming March 5 elections and covered the following topics:

• Key electoral systems that Nepal has adopted since the first democratic elections in 1959, and in the elections held after 1990,
• Since 2017, Nepal has adopted a mixed electoral model, First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) and Proportional Representation (PR) for federal and provincial elections. How are parliamentarians elected through FPTP and PR, and how is the new parliament formed?
• Help address the dilemmas faced by students and first-time voters by explaining the electoral system in a clear and concise manner.
• Aim to motivate young citizens to feel more confident about their choices and contribute to a fairer and more representative democracy.
• The Gen Z movement and The Reform Agenda,
• Are we missing the window of opportunity given our history?
• The importance of asking questions, especially to the parties and candidates that one supports, to ensure fairness and clarity in their decision and their choice of leadership.
• Significance of Budget Allocation.

In this session, the participants also actively participated in the reflection session, where they shared their concerns about how people currently emphasize more on the person or the candidate rather than the institution or the political party as a whole. Overall, the session brought light to a lot of important agendas surrounding politics and the electoral system and also gave space to interesting narratives and discussions that are crucial to be acknowledged, especially when we are about to perform our greatest civic duty: Voting!

2.Ballot Basics: A Classroom Awareness Campaign about Voting

With respect and emphasis on the fact that many students were first time voters, the School of Social Sciences (SOSS) conducted a week-long awareness campaign titled the “Ballot Basics." In this campaign, the academic fellows of SOSS reached out to each school of study at Thames International College: the School of Social Sciences, the School of Business, and the School of Information Technology, and through in-person interactions in classrooms, provided in-depth information about the voting procedures.

The topics covered in these sessions were

• Addressing Common Voting Experiences and Dilemmas,
• Voting Process,
• Websites for further Information about the election, candidates, and Parties,
• How to Check their name in the Voter Roll at the Election Commission's Website,
• Ballot Paper: First Past The Post (FPTP) and Proportional Representation (PR),
• How to Cast Your Votes: What is Valid and What is Invalid?
• Information about the upcoming Mock Elections.

Furthermore, the campaign also encouraged conversations around why voting is important and how we all should be informed and aware of the agendas of the parties and candidates before we cast our precious votes.

3.Mock Elections

After the conversations with students, mock elections were absolutely essential for first-time voters and conducted a two-day mock voting session. This mock election observed 100 voters casting their vote. Volunteers helped ensure the voters knew how elections work and how to ensure they cast their vote correctly. This simulation of a voting environment was helpful not only to ensure young voters don’t waste their vote by making common mistakes but also to calm their nerves.