KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 15
The Election Commission today issued a four-point directive prohibiting people from carrying mobile phones, cameras, matches, or lighters while coming to polling booths to cast their votes.
According to the EC bulletin, the EC will discuss the issue in an all-party meeting and will urge voters and other people not to carry the above-mentioned items to polling booths. The EC will take immediate action against those not complying with its directive.
The poll panel said anybody carrying any of the prohibited items would have to deposit them at the entrance of the polling centres or to put them at their choice of place before entering polling centres. The EC has directed its returning officers, polling officers, and all employees to take action against those who violate the election code of conduct. They have been directed to confiscate the said items if they are smuggled inside polling centres.
In a related development, the Ministry of Home Affairs today issued a press release announcing public holidays for government offices and public institutions on November 20 and 21 to facilitate the election process.
The ministry said the schools where polling centres would be set up for provincial and parliamentary elections would observe public holidays from November 18 to 21.
Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya urged the public not to deprive anybody of their voting rights or disrupt the voting process on the election day. He said polling officers had the power to take punitive action and impose penalty on anyone trying to tamper with ballot boxes or indulge in bogus voting.
A version of this article appears in the print on November 16, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
