EC intensifies preparations for free, fair elections

KATHMANDU: The Election Commission (EC) has intensified preparations in order to hold the November 20 elections of the provincial and federal parliaments in a free and fair manner.

In this connection, it endorsed the election schedule. The directive, work procedure and amendments relating to the elections have also been approved.

Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya said that the EC had called for registration of the political parties willing to participate in the elections and completed the financial management work procedure and budget.

The EC has been provided 107 days for the preparations. It has estimated the election cost at Rs 10 billion while the total voters would be around 18.2 million.

Even the international organizations have been called for election observation in order to hold the elections in a free, fair and frugal manner. It is shared that there will be some 10,825 polling stations.

CCTV surveillance will be put in place for making the vote count credible. It will be helpful for monitoring of the elections and vote count as well.

The citizens turning 18 years on the eve of the elections are eligible to exercise voting rights.

For voting literacy, digital media is used extensively by the Election Commission. There is continuous discussion and consultation with the experts and political representatives in a bid to minimize the percentage of invalid votes and increase voters’ turnout.

Moreover, the EC has also planned to ensure voting rights to the employees and security persons mobilized for the elections and the inmates by including them in the temporary voter list. With this, they can at least vote for proportional elections.

Efforts are on to discourage prodigal election publicity.

Another nagging issue the EC is facing and taking efforts to address is the spread of fake news. The EC believes that fake news- disinformation and misinformation- pollutes the electoral information system.

Equal attention has been drawn towards the promotion of honest politics. The candidates will be urged to make self-disclosure on their qualification and financial issues.