• LOCAL LEVEL POLLS
KATHMANDU, APRIL 21
The Election Commission has printed 11,900,000 ballot papers for 53 districts of the 77 districts that go to polls on May 13.
EC Spokesperson Shaligram Sharma Paudel told a daily press briefing here today that the EC had also started sending election materials to the districts today. Ballot papers will be sent to districts at dates nearer to the polls.
"Ballot papers are sensitive materials. As such they cannot be sent to the districts much before the polls," Paudel said.
He added that ballot papers would be transported to districts escorted by Nepali Army personnel.
Transportation of other election materials shall be monitored by the EC through the GPS system and units of security personnel deployed by the home ministry. Paudel said the EC had written letters to business associations to ensure that industries did not print any prohibited materials in the run-up to the local polls.
The EC has given permission to around 10,000 observers from 44 national organisations to observe local polls. Poll observers will have to submit a report to the EC after observing local polls.
When asked how the EC would address the question of resignation of those local representatives who would have to resign before filing their nomination papers, Paudel said, "Relevant laws have provisions on whom a representative shall submit his/her resignation letter. In case there is confusion, the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration shall clear it."
Some representatives said that there was a provision that chiefs of local levels were required to submit their resignations to deputy chiefs and vice versa, but in case both chief and deputy chief of a local level decided to quit, there was no clarity on who they should submit their resignation letter to.
A version of this article appears in the print on April 22, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
