Kathmandu, July 7

The Election Commission is keen to use electronic voting machines in the upcoming polls and is planning to send a team of experts to India to study possibility of using EVMs in provincial and parliamentary elections.

Chief Election Commissioner Ayodhi Prasad Yadav said at a programme here today that the EC would use EVMs if its experts found the ones manufactured by Indian companies usable in Nepal and if the government provided necessary budget to purchase them.

Addressing a programme organised by the National Election Observation Committee, General Election Observation Committee  and Sankalpa, Yadav said a lot of problems related to printing of ballot papers, their size, incidents of tearing of  ballot papers and delay in vote counting would be resolved if the EC could use EVMs.

EC Commissioner Ishwori Prasad Paudel told THT  that the EC team would first study the compatibility of machines in the Nepali context and also confirm whether or not the Indian companies could supply  EVMs  within the time frame determined by the EC.

CEC Yadav said the EC was preparing to conduct early voting in provincial and  parliamentary elections. He said EC officials would decide  whether to keep the ballot papers in the districts or in Kathmandu  for early  voting.  Early voting is a  process which  allows voters to  cast their votes  prior to the scheduled polling day. Government employees, security personnel  or people who are away from their home districts  can benefit from early voting.

Yadav ruled out the possibility of holding the parliamentary and provincial assembly elections simultaneously  owing to legal, constitutional and managerial problems. He, however, said it was possible to hold parliamentary elections a few days after provincial polls.

CEC Yadav added that the EC spent  Rs 5.54 billion to conduct the first and the second phase of local level polls — approximately Rs 488 per voter.

The poll panel had suggested to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba that provincial and parliamentary elections should be held separately but before the last week of November.

Local, provincial and parliamentary elections should be held before January 21 to meet the constitution obligation.

The EC has also demanded that election dates be declared, laws related to provincial and parliamentary elections be enacted and laws and report of Constituency Delimitation Commission be provided as soon as possible.

The government has not yet formed CDC.