EC intensifies preparation for free, fair poll

The Election Commission (EC) has intensified the preparation in order to hold the November 20 elections of the provincial and federal parliaments in a free and fair manner.

In this connection, it endorsed the election schedule. The directive, work procedure, and amendments relating to the election have also been approved.

Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya informed that EC had called for the registration of the political parties willing to participate in the election and completed the financial management work procedure and budget.

The EC has been provided 107 days for the preparation. It has been estimated the election cost Rs 10 billion while the total voters would be around 18.2 million.

Even international organizations have been called for election observation in order to hold the election in a free, fair, and frugal manner. It is shared that there will be some 10,825 polling stations.

CCTV surveillance will be put in place for making the vote count credible. It will be helpful for monitoring the election and vote count as well. The citizens turning 18 years on the eve of the election are eligible to exercise voting rights.

For voting literacy, digital media is used extensively by the Election Commission. There is continuous discussion and consultation with the experts and political representatives in a bid to minimize the percentage of invalid votes and increase voters' turnout.

Moreover, EC has also planned to ensure voting rights to the employees and security persons mobilized for the election and the inmates by including them in the temporary voter list. With this, they can at least vote for a proportional election.

Efforts are on to discourage prodigal election publicity.

Another nagging issue the EC is facing and taking efforts to address is the spread of fake news. EC believes that fake news- disinformation and misinformation- pollutes the electoral information system.

Equal attention has been drawn to the promotion of honest politics. The candidates will be urged to make self-disclosure on their qualifications and financial issues.