Kathmandu, April 2:

The Election Commission seems helpless when it comes to monitoring, observing

or controlling the 148 institutions, which are going to independently observe the constituent assembly election, to be held on April 10.

“We are helpless. Nobody is going to control or monitor the activities of the observers,” said Laxman Bhattarai, the EC spokesperson, taking with media persons at the EC.

EC has lately found that many of the observers are associated with political parties and some do not even meet the basic qualifications. The code of conduct states that the observers must not be related to any political parties, they should not blame any of the stakeholders of the election, should not take part in any sort of campaigns and carry any object in support of any party. They should also have accurate and comprehensive viewpoint when preparing observation reviews and reports.

However, it is seen that proportional representative candidates, district-level leaders of parties, leaders of sister organisations of the parties and even former party candidates are also taking part in the observation.

The EC has issued directives to election offices to withdraw the identity cards of those observers, who do not fit in the code of conduct and also has asked the organisations to stop sending applications for such persons. “But we cannot examine each of the estimated 93,000 observers,” he said.

He, however, said the EC could only cancel identity cards of the observers, if they are found engaged in any activities prohibited by the code of conduct.

“The identity cards of the observers will be cancelled if they are not following the EC directives, seen inclined to any political party and if they prevent EC officials from discharging their duties or violating the observation code of conduct,” he said, adding, “But we cannot slap any further punishment on any of the observers.”

Dhruba Dhakal, director at the Election Observation Resource Centre of the EC, said: “We cannot be sure of what the organisations are going to report. We have requested them to make sure that the reports are not fundamentally different. But we cannot control or guide them.”

The EC, issuing a press release today, showed its concern about the recent attacks on poll candidates.

Meanwhile, a six-member delegation from the German parliament today met CEC Bhoj Raj Pokharel, a release said, adding the German team assured the EC of providing necessary assistance for the election.

EC fails to produce details

KATHMANDU: The EC on Wednesday failed to produce details of the Proportional Representation candidates, who are found underage and who did not submit citizenship cards. The EC had said on Tuesday that it would give the parties one-day chance to submit their clarification on the issue and would make final report public. The EC on Wednesday held a meeting with different civil society bodies at its office. “Chief election commissioner Bhoj Raj Pokharel held a meeting with representatives of nine civil society organisations and he urged the representatives to constructively take part in the election,” an official said. — HNS