“All Preparations Completed For November 30 By-Election”

Kathmandu, Nov. 27: Election Commission of Nepal (ECN) has completed all preparations for holding the by-election scheduled for November 30 to the Houses of Representatives, State Assembly and Local levels.

At a press meet on Wednesday afternoon, ECN informed that all election materials and required human resources deployed to all 247 pooling booths and 537 pooling centres of 37 districts would reach the destinations by Wednesday evening.

A Joint Election Operation Centre (JEOC) is in operation in the participation of ECN and all three security bodies. The JEOC is coordinating with chief returning officers, returning officers, district security committees and District Election offices for facilitating the by-election, the ECN stated in its statement.

The Election Commission has already given permission to various institutions to monitor the by-election. Chiefs and representatives of diplomatic missions of America, Japan, Australia and European Union, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have been permitted for polling day visit for election monitoring.

The by-election is going to be held to elect representatives in different 52 vacant posts in the House of Representatives, State Assembly and local levels.

A member of the House of Representatives will be elected from Constituency 2 of Kaski district and three members of the State Assemblies will be elected from Constituency No. 1 (A) of Bhaktapur, Constituency No. 2 (B) of Baglung and Constituency No. 3 (B) of Dang districts.

Similarly, a mayor of Dharan Sub-Metropolitan City, and three Rural Municipality (RM) chairs in Makalu RM of Sankhuwasabha, Phalgunanda RM of Panchthar and Pipara RM of Mahotari districts will be elected in the by-election.

Likewise, vice-chair of Kharpunath RM of Humla and different 43 ward chairs in different RM and municipalities are also going to be elected in the by-election.

According to ECN, a total of 454,114 voters from 37 districts will cast their votes in the by-election to elect 52 representatives.

There are 71,871 eligible voters for the by-election of the House of Representatives in Constituency No. 2 of Kaski district whereas 45,015 voters of Bhaktapur 35,184 of Baglung and 68,719 voters of Dang will cast vote to elect the members of State Assemblies.

For holding the by-election, the ECN has deployed 354 additional staff members in the office of Chief Returning Officer and the Office of Returning Officer. Similarly, a total of 5,054 human resources, including 2,684 employees and 2016 volunteers have been deployed in the polling centres.

ECN stated that the silence period of the by-election will begin from Wednesday midnight During the silence period, election publicity through media will not be entertained, it added.

Three-day holiday given at schools in Kaski constituency-2

Meanwhile, a three-day holiday has been announced for schools in Kaski district constituency-2, which have been assigned as the polling centres for the by-election.

Voting is taking place in the constituency under the by-election going to be held on November 30 for the member of House of Representatives. The Pokhara Metropolitan City has decided to give a public holiday from November 28 to 30 to 29 schools located in the 11 Wards of the metropolis which have been assigned as the polling centres.

PMC’s Educational Administration Division chief Ganga Bahadur Gurung said the decision to give a public holiday to these schools was made as requested by the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration.

There are 32 voting centres and 82 polling booths in Kaski constituency-2.