The EC must not hesitate in taking action against those who breach the election code
As the final list of all the candidates vying for the elections of the federal parliament and provincial assemblies have been published, the Election Commission (EC) has said it would complete printing of all the ballot papers in the next four weeks. Elections for the federal parliament and provincial assemblies are scheduled for November 20. The electorate from all across the country will be electing 165 lawmakers under the First-Past-the-Post (FPtP) system and 110 lawmakers under the proportional representation (PR) system for the 275-member federal parliament.
There are 550 provincial seats in all the seven provinces.
Of them, 330, or 60 per cent of the provincial seats, will be elected through the FPtP and 220, or 40 per cent of the seats, through the PR system. At least 33 per cent of the total seats allocated for both the federal parliament and provincial assemblies should be reserved for women. This is the second general election being held after the new constitution was promulgated in 2015. This time around, there are a total of 17,988,570 registered voters. All the candidates are allowed to launch their election campaigns only 17 days before the election date. However, the candidates have already started their campaigns informally in small groups.
The EC has said it has completed printing of 40,605,000 ballot papers for the PR for the parliamentary and provincial assemblies. Out of them, 20,421,000 are for the House of Representatives elections and 20,184,000 for the provincial elections.
The EC has also printed 1.7 million ballot papers for the FPtP. The EC has already dispatched the PR ballot papers to 18 districts. Assistant spokesperson of the EC, Surya Prasad Aryal said the EC would print upto 12 per cent more ballot papers than the total number of voters for the federal parliament and provincial assemblies.
Aryal said the printing of the ballot papers for both the FPtP and PR systems was going on as per the schedule, and it would be completed within the next four weeks. The EC would print more ballot papers for the PR than that for the FPtP as the government employees, security personnel and prisoners would also be voting under the PR system.
Meanwhile, the poll panel has issued a show cause notice to six persons, including CPN-Maoist Centre chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is contesting the parliamentary election from Gorkha-2, for violating the EC code of conduct. Others whom the EC has issued the notice include local level officials, various ministries and chief minister of Gandaki Province.
The poll panel issued the show cause notice to Dahal for being accompanied by a musical band and more than 25 persons on the day of filing his nomination on October 9. It is yet to be seen what sort of legal action the EC would take against those who have violated the code. Issuing merely a show cause notice is not enough. The EC must not hesitate in taking strong legal action against those who breach the code if the elections are to be held in a free, fair and fear-free manner. The central monitoring committee the EC has established should monitor the election campaigns of all the political parties and independents, who are going to pose a big election challenge to the established political parties this time around.
Concluding the upcoming elections in an impartial manner is the duty of all concerned.
Fancy bike terror
That the traffic police is taking action against those riding loud exhaust bikes is welcome news, which not only causes noise pollution but also goes against the provisions of the Motor Vehicle and Transport Management Act. With nearly a million vehicles, the bulk of them two-wheelers, plying the streets of Kathmandu, noise pollution at some key points of the city is already beyond the limit set by the World Health Organisation. With an increasing number of youngsters opting for loud exhaust bikes to attract pedestrians' attention in the streets, they are not only increasing the already bad noise pollution but also terrorising road users with the sound.
These fancy bikes are largely mechanically modified to give that extra loudness while speeding, which is punishable under the laws. The sound levels of some of these bikes are said to exceed 110 decibels as against the maximum limit of 84, although the permissible level is 70 decibels for road traffic noise during the daytime. Modified motorcycles, besides creating loud noise, also pose a danger to the riders.
Hence the action taken by the traffic police is not only timely but also long overdue. The valley's residents would like to see its continuity now.
A version of this article appears in the print on October 17, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
