Kathmandu, September 18

Major political parties — the Nepali Congress, the CPN-UML and the CPN-Maoist Centre today agreed to make only two ballot papers for provincial and parliamentary polls slated for November 26 and December 7.

Top leaders agreed to use one kind of ballot papers for the first-past-the-post election system and another kind for proportional representation election system, sources said.

During the meeting held at the Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers in Singha Durbar, the parties agreed to use two ballot papers as proposed by the Election Commission.

“We have agreed to make only two kinds of ballot papers for provincial and parliamentary elections,” said UML Deputy Parliamentary Party leader Subash Chandra Nembang . He said the major parties agreed the proposal the polls panel presented in an earlier meeting held at Baluwatar.

According to UML leader Rajendra Pandey, voters, however, have to cast votes separately for the first-past-the- post election of the province and of the parliament in one ballot paper and they will have to cast votes separately for provincial and parliamentary proportional representation election in the second ballot paper.

“There will be two symbols of each political party in the same ballot paper — one for provincial elections and another for parliamentary elections,” said the UML leader. He said that the two symbols will be separated by a vertical line in the middle of both FPTP and PR ballot papers.

According to a press release issued by EC Spokesperson Nabaraj Dhakal, CEC Yadav informed senior leaders of the big three parties that the polls panel had prepared initial design of the ballot papers. He also reminded the PM and leaders of political parties about time constraints.

PM Deuba directed EC officials to make simple and voter-friendly ballot papers.