Poll preparations over in Province 4

  • Any form of campaigning is not allowed after the beginning of silence period

Pokhara, May 12

Preparations for the first phase of local level elections slated for May 14 have concluded in all districts across Province 4.

The Regional Election Office of Kaski today organised a press conference to inform that preparations for the polls were over in Pokhara. “Except for a couple of places, election-related preparations have completed in the province,” said Election Commissioner Ishwori Prasad Poudel, urging political parties to abide by the election code of conduct.

“As the silence period has begun, parties aren’t allowed to take to any form of election campaigning through any means, including social networking sites,” Poudel said. “Parties are also required to remove the publicity materials that they had used earlier. We’ll take the help of police administration if the parties fail to do so,” he added.

Poudel also warned of stringent action against any candidate found defying election code of conduct. “We don’t want to scrap anyone’s candidacy, but won’t hesitate if we find candidates violating the election code of conduct,” he said. “Distribution of voter identity cards has begun after election officers reached the voting centres on Thursday with ballot papers and ballot boxes,” said Pokhara-based Election Office chief Gangalal Subedi.

As per a data, Kaski district has 150 voting centres and 288 voting booths while 234,000 voters are all set to cast their ballots.