KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 22
Acting Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Ram Prasad Bhandari has appealed everyone to ignore the rumours being spread by some individuals that election to the House of Representatives will not be held on March 5.
Addressing the orientation programme on election publicity organized by the Gorkhapattra Corporation here today, Acting CEC Bhandari called on the public not to be misled by such rumours and assured everyone that the election will be conducted on the stipulated time.
He acknowledged that an enabling environment for election was created in the country due to the media professionals shouldering their responsibilities with integrity.
"Elections are essential for good-governance. Election will grant authority to maintain good-governance for five year. Election Code of Conduct is currently in force and many complaints have been received regarding its violation," mentioned Bhandari, pledging to look into those complaints.
Addressing the journalists, he emphasized that the news dissemination must be carried out complying with the code of conduct put in place to ensure that the election is held in free, fair and free-free environment.
He pointed out that conducting opinion poll is prohibited under the code of conduct.
He stated that publishing and predicting before the election that one candidate will win and another will lose could lead to the opposite result. Hence, he requested everyone to refrain from such activities.
Furthermore, Bhandari cited that some prominent individuals were engaging in opinion polling referring to the rights granted by the Article 19 of the Constitution of Nepal.
Towards this, he called on them to review previous interpretations and analysis by the Supreme Court on the similar matters.
On the occasion, he requested the journalists to run news report and stories on the activities of election observers.
Although the upcoming election is considered the 'most complex election of the century', he articulated that the Election Commission is preparing to conduct it smoothly and successfully.
He highlighted the importance of the upcoming election to bring the destabilized country back to a stable and functioning state.
Joint Secretary and Spokesperson of the Commission, Narayan Prasad Bhattarai, said that all citizens should go to vote and that, as media have been providing voter education to ensure a higher turnout than previous elections, this effort should be intensified in the coming week.
He said that this election can be considered successful if a higher percentage of votes are cast this time than in the 2079 BS election.
The EC Spokesperson also emphasised that since the Gorkhapatra publishes news content in 46 languages, voter education materials related to elections should be included in all those languages.
Chairman of Gorkhapatra Corporation, Govinda Prasad Bhandari, emphasised that the Election Commission should not provide information regarding elections and voter education only during elections, but that this subject should be included in school textbooks as course content.
He stated that the work of education, information, messaging and entertainment carried out by the media also includes election and voter education.
General Manager Lal Bahadur Airi shared on the occasion that Gorkhapatra started working 100 days ago, prioritising elections, good governance and democracy.
He informed that all editors, reporters, language editors, coordinators and co-coordinators of the language pages, provincial coordinators and others involved in all the publications of the Corporation participated in the orientation.
At the orientation, Secretary of the Commission Rajendra Kumar KC gave a presentation on election campaigning and voter education.
He pointed out that in provinces with higher literacy rates, the percentage of valid votes tends to be higher, whereas in provinces with lower literacy rates, the percentage of invalid votes tends to be higher, and agencies concerned should pay attention to this in time.