Kathmandu, February 13

The Election Commission has started necessary preparations for local elections after the government sent a formal letter informing it of the tentative dates for the polls.

A meeting of the Council of Ministers held two weeks ago had decided to send a formal letter to the election body asking it to start necessary preparations for elections for local bodies.

“We have been working to prepare election related regulations and directives, which are essential for the polls,” said EC Spokesperson Surya Prasad Sharma.

He said that the commission has to prepare election related regulations and directives, as the Parliament has already passed four election related bills, which were approved by President Bidhya Devi Bhandari.

According to Spokesperson Sharma, the EC has also started updating the voters’ list and gathering information about the press where ballot papers will be printed. The EC also started making estimates of the paper and the budget for local polls.

The EC is also working to make estimates of the human resources and assessing other materials related to polls. “We will also discuss with the aid agencies that are willing to support us in the election,” said EC’s Communication Officer Surya Prasad Aryal. He said that the commission had been planning to hold discussion with major donor countries such as India, China and Japan, which had also assisted the EC in the previous elections.

He said that the EC will ask Japan to provide   ballot boxes to replace the damaged ones and seal caps for reliability of the ballot box.

The EC is planning to request India for stationery, indelible ink or electoral ink and stamp pads. Likewise, the commission is planning to request China for curtains that have needed to be placed at polling stations to ensure the privacy of voters.

Aryal informed that the EC today held a meeting of its all departments and asked the officials concerned to assess the estimated budget for training human resources, voters’ identity cards and also logistics. He said that the ballot paper would be printed in Janak Siksha Samagri Kendra Ltd.

However, the EC said that all the preparations for local polls would be meaningless, without the announcement of poll dates and the endorsement of the report of the Local Bodies Restructuring Commission.

Earlier, the EC had asked the government to provide sufficient budget, announce polls dates and endorse the report prepared by the LBRC, which according to the commission, were prerequisites for poll preparations.

The EC had also reminded the government that the commission could not hire manpower and buy materials until the government announced the poll dates and provided a copy of the LBRC’s report.