Kathmandu, October 22

The Election Commission will decide tomorrow on the Supreme Court’s order wherein the apex court expected the EC to seriously consider printing separate ballot papers for provincial and parliamentary First-Past-the-Post elections scheduled for November 26 and December 7.

A source at the EC said the seven-member task force formed to study the possibility of using separate ballot papers for provincial and parliamentary FPTP elections submitted its report today.

The EC had formed the task force after the SC passed an order on October 18 in response to a writ petition filed by Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal leader Sarvendranath Shukla saying that the EC had not started printing FPTP ballot papers. The court hoped that the polls panel would seriously consider printing separate ballot papers for provincial and parliamentary FPTP elections.

An EC source said the task force had stated in its report that printing separate ballot papers would entail extra resources including human resources, ballot papers, and security personnel. The source said the task force stated in its report that the EC might not get sufficient printing paper and might not be able to print separate ballot papers in time for the elections. As per the EC schedule, the printing of FPTP ballot papers will commence on October 26.

Another source at the EC said that on October 18 the polls panel had discussed printing four types of ballot papers in the event of the SC’s ruling on the same, but since the court did not issue an interim order, the EC was now trying to interpret the court’s order as non-binding.

“I think the EC should print separate FPTP ballot papers for provincial and parliamentary polls, but the EC is being lazy,” the source added.  The source said that the EC had, on October 18, even thought of running the Janak Education Material Centre’s press round-the-clock and outsourcing printing jobs to private printing houses in order to print four types of ballot papers.

EC Spokesperson Navaraj Dhakal said the polls panel was yet to receive a copy of the Supreme Court’s order, but the polls panel-formed task force was considering the court’s order and its potentially serious implications.