Election preparation over, says EC

KATHMANDU: The Election Commission said all election-related preparations have been completed and the voters could cast their ballot in the parliamentary election, on November 20 in a fearless manner. A total of 246,960 staff and around 300,000 security personnel have reached their respective duty stations with election materials for the upcoming twin poll, the EC said. The EC appealed to the voters to exercise their franchise without being under the influence of anyone or without being fearful and intimidated. The EC shared that all managerial works related to the election were completed and security arrangements are in place to make the election free and fair. The election will be held in a transparent and peaceful environment. At a press conference organised by the EC on Thursday, Chief Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya said that the Commission was aware of the election management and operation getting adversely affected due to the dissemination of false and misleading information and hate-speech at home and abroad for vested political interest prior and after the election. Thapaliya requested the election staff, security personnel, observers, monitoring team members or any individual to inform the concerned authorities about any activity imperilling the election process that comes to their knowledge and asked the concerned authority to prevent such activity from happening and take action against the wrongdoers. He said that a 'reserve force' was in place which could reach the site within 3o minutes to deal with untoward activities. During the silence period, none can run election campaigns during this period publicly. Towards this, the EC has directed the Advertisement Board to monitor whether the election-related promotional materials were posted or shared on social networking sites and other digital platforms during the silence period. Furthermore, directives were also issued for those concerned to remove the contents related to the election campaign from social networking sites and other digital platforms. Meanwhile, the election staff and security personnel deployed in their respective polling centres will set up polling centres within the next two days, according to EC. Moreover, to assure equal access of women, senior citizens, expecting mothers, new mothers, critically-ill persons, Dalits, people with disabilities, sexual minorities and other marginalised communities to the polling centres and stations, the EC directed the election staff and security personnel to create enabling environment for them to vote conveniently. According to EC, there are a total of 17,988,570 voters registered with the Commission and 22,227 voting centres in 10,892 polling stations. Similarly, 141 temporary polling centres were set up and around 450,000 temporary voters assigned in and around polling centres could cast their vote from their nearest polling centres. There are 2,412 candidates contesting for the House of Representatives member under First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) system and 2,199 candidates under the Proportional Representation (PR) as per the closed list in the Commission. Likewise, 3,224 candidates were running for election for Province Assembly under the FPTP system and 3,708 under PR. A total of 80,567,500 ballot papers have been printed and transported to the designated polling centres for the twin elections to be held under FPTP and PR system. Altogether 7,219 observers (national and international) have been selected to observe the election. Additionally, representatives of 18 foreign diplomatic missions in Nepal will also monitor the election on voting day. As silence hour is effective 12:00 midnight on Thursday, sales, distribution, as well as consumption of alcohol, are prohibited from midnight to the day vote counting is completed. For the effective implementation of this election code of conduct, the Commission has activated monitoring mechanisms and local levels in all 77 districts, CEC Thapaliya said. By RSS READ ALSO:

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