Kathmandu, July 18

The Election Commission has decided to update voter lists in all 744 local levels — rural municipalities, municipalities, sub-metropolitan cities and metropolitan cities — throughout the country.

A meeting of EC office bearers held today at its central office here also decided to continue the ongoing voter registration programmes in the EC’s district and regional offices until poll dates were announced.

Election Commissioner Narendra Dahal said voters could register in their respective local levels from July 31 to August 16. “Those who miss the deadline can register in the EC’s district and regional offices before the poll dates are announced,” Dahal told mediapersons. He said the EC had also decided to open out-district registration in all its district and regional offices.Out-district registration will allow voters to register from districts other than their home districts. This will benefit people who work or study outside their home districts.

Earlier, the EC had asked voters to register from July 16 to July 30 only from its district and regional offices. According to Dahal, the poll panel’s new decision is in response to growing demands of political parties and voters. All major parties — the Nepali Congress, the CPN-UML and the CPN-Maoist Centre — had demanded that the EC extend voter registration deadline and open out-district registration. They had also sent separate delegations to the EC’s office to pressure it to accede to their demand. They had argued that a lot of young voters would be deprived of exercising their right to vote, if the EC didn’t rescind its decision.

EC Spokesperson Surya Prasad Sharma said the decision was changed to update electoral rolls to include all prospective voters. “We have extended the voter registration deadline and eased other provisions, as the government has neither announced provincial election dates nor formed the Constituency Delimitation Commission,” said Sharma.

He said the EC had scheduled voter registration from July 16 to 30, as it expected the government to announce provincial poll dates by July 30. The EC stated that the new deadline would ease pressure on its district and regional offices to register voters.