• The Election Commission will dispatch ballot papers required for the second phase of polls to the 45 districts, which go to polls on December 7, 11 days before the elections

Kathmandu, November 20 The Election Commission has printed over 57 million ballot papers for the two phases of polls scheduled to be held on November 26 and December 7. There are 15,427,731 voters in the country and the EC has printed  three types of ballot papers — one for provincial and parliamentary proportional representation polls, one for parliamentary first-past-the-post polls and one for provincial FPTP polls. As per the regulations, the EC has printed 10 per cent extra ballot papers of each type. EC Spokesperson Navaraj Dhakal said the EC had already dispatched all the ballot papers required for the first phase of provincial and parliamentary elections to all the polling centres in 32 districts. He said the EC would dispatch ballot papers required for the second phase of polls scheduled to be held in 45 districts 11 days before the elections.  “In most places we will be able to dispatch ballot papers 13 days before the polls,” Dhakal said. Dhakal said the poll panel would dispatch ballot papers for the second phase polls to polling centres three days before the polls. Dhakal said the poll panel would use helicopters to transport ballot papers to remote areas of the country, if needed. When asked how the EC planned to protect ballot papers, Dhakal said the EC had been providing adequate security for ballot papers. “For security reasons I cannot divulge how many security personnel are protecting ballot papers while transporting them, but rest assured that we have managed to provide enough security,” Dhakal added. The EC, which had planned to print both parliamentary and provincial FPTP ballot papers on a single sheet, later decided to print them separately after the Supreme Court issued an order directing the EC to print provincial and parliamentary FPTP ballot papers on separate sheets.