KATHMANDU, APRIL 23
As many as 168,000 security personnel from all four security agencies in the country will be mobilised to ensure security for the local level elections slated for May 13.
The Ministry of Home Affairs said a three-tier security system would be put in place during the election in a bid to hold the elections in a free, fair, and fearless manner.
As per the security strategy, a total of 65,000 Nepal police personnel will be deployed in the first circle of election security, 32,000 Armed Police Force personnel in the second circle, and 71,000 Nepali Army personnel in the third circle. Similarly, personnel deployed from the National Investigation Bureau will also support the security agencies in investigations to avert possible untoward incidents during the election.
The MoHA said integrated and separate strategic security mechanism had been created with the involvement of all four security agencies to ensure that the election would be held in a fearless and peaceful manner.
Nepal Police Spokesperson Senior Superintendent of Police Bishnukumar KC said they were committed to creating a peaceful and fearless environment in the election and work as per the strategic security mechanism. Apart from providing security in the third line, the Nepali Army will be responsible for transporting ballot papers from election booths to counting centres and providing security to the ballot boxes. An additional 100,000 temporary police who were hired and trained particularly to provide basic security and manage the booths would be deployed across the country for the same.
There will be a total of 10,756 polling stations and 21,955 polling booths for the upcoming local elections. Accordingly, the government has catagorised 2,946 polling stations as highly sensitive, 4,423 as sensitive, and 3,387 as less sensitive.
A total of 753 local level representatives will be elected from across the country during the local level elections in Nepal.
A version of this article appears in the print on April 24, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
