Kathmandu, January 15

The Election Commission said that it would hold discussion with political parties on the National Assembly election slated for February 7 tomorrow.

The poll panel said that 22 parties, including the major political parties — the Nepali Congress, The CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist centre — had applied to registered their parties to contest the National Assembly election.

EC Spokesperson Navaraj Dhakal said the EC would discuss with representatives of political parties  about the overall issues regarding the NA election.

“We will inform them about our overall preparations,” said Spokesperson Dhakal, adding that the EC would also inform them about the procedure of holding National Assembly polls. He said the EC would also seek views of the parties on the type of ballot paper.

According to Dhakal, the election body will use ballot papers similar to the ones it used in the 1992 NA election. However, spokesperson Dhakal said that ballot papers for elected chief and deputy chiefs of local levels and provincial assembly members would be different, as vote weightage of the chiefs and deputy chiefs of local levels differed from the vote weightage of provincial assembly members.

Vote weightage of chiefs and deputy chiefs of local levels are 18, whereas the vote weightage of provincial assembly members are 48. Chiefs and deputy chiefs of local levels and provincial assembly members are voters of the National Assembly election.

Similarly, the EC said that ballot papers for three women candidates would differ from the ballot papers of the open category in which anyone — male or female could contest.

Spokesperson Dhakal said that ballot papers for Dalit and differently-abled persons or from minority groups could differ. He said that the EC had not yet taken final decision on that matter.

The election body said that there would be two sub-polling centres in each polling centre — one for provincial assembly members and the other for chiefs and deputy chiefs of local levels.

The EC has set up office of the chief returning officers in Morang, Dhanusha, Lalitpur, Kaski Dang, Surkhet and Doti districts for the NA election and appointed district judges of the respective districts, as chief returning officers.