Kathmandu, September 26

The Election Commission said that it had permitted the Carter Centre to monitor provincial and parliamentary elections slated for November 26 and December 7.

The Carter Centre, which had monitored Constituent Assembly elections — of 2008 and 2013, applied to monitor the provincial and parliamentary elections this year as well, according to EC Co-spokesperson Mukunda Sharma.

The Centre was founded in 1982 by former US President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn to advance peace and health worldwide.

“We have given permission to the Centre to monitor the upcoming provincial and parliamentary elections,” said Sharma. He said the centre would deploy long-term and short-term observers for monitoring elections in all seven provinces.

The election body informed that a few other international organisations had also applied to monitor the elections. The EC on September 9 had called on applications from international organisations that wanted to monitor the elections, setting the application deadline for September 30.

During the local level elections, the EC had refused to allow international organisations, including The Carter Centre, to observe the polls saying that it did not have a policy of allowing international observers to monitor local level elections. Meanwhile, the EC has called on national organisations to apply for observation of provincial and parliamentary elections. Co-spokesperson Sharma said some national organisations including the National Election Observation Committee had applied to monitor polls.