National Security Council reviews security for elections; EC urges all voters to actively participate in election

Kathmandu, March 4: The National Security Council has decided to keep everything in place to hold the House of Representatives (HoR) elections in a free, fair, peaceful and flawless manner.

A meeting of the Council held today at Singha Durbar under the chair of Prime Minister Sushila Karki reviewed the security arrangements for the HoR elections and confirmed that all essential security measures are in place.

The meeting also decided to deploy security agencies in a more effective and coordinated manner to maintain law and order, and the security situation throughout the country, said Kedarnath Sharma, Secretary at the Ministry of Defence.

It is learnt that discussions were held regarding the national security challenges, as well as the potential implications of the evolving situation at national, regional, and international levels on national security and the possible future strategies.

Finance Minister Rameshore Khanal, Home Minister Om Prakash Aryal, Foreign Minister Balananda Sharma, Labour and Social Security Minister Rajendra Singh Bhandari, Chief Secretary Suman Raj Aryal and Chief of Army Staff Ashok Raj Sigdel attended the meeting.

EC urges all voters to actively participate in election

The Election Commission (EC) has urged all voters to participate actively and enthusiastically in the voting scheduled for Thursday, March 5, under the House of Representatives (HoR) election.

At a press meet organized at the EC today on the eve of the voting, Officiating Chief Election Commissioner Ram Prasad Bhandari said that all preparations for conducting the election have been completed. He called on all eligible citizens to take part in the election as a constitutional exercise to renew democratic legitimacy and cast their invaluable votes.

A total of 65 political parties are contesting under the first-past-the-post (direct) electoral system with 61 election symbols. Under the direct system, there are 3,017 male candidates and 388 female candidates. One candidate from the other gender is also contesting, bringing the total number of candidates under this system to 3,406.

Similarly, under the proportional representation (PR) electoral system, 1,363 male and 1,772 female candidates who make a total of 3,135 candidates are in the race. Voting under the direct electoral system is being held for 165 constituencies, while 110 seats are allocated under the PR system.

In this election, the total number of voters is 10,893,689. Of them, 9,663,358 are male voters, 1,230,131 are female voters, and 200 belong to other genders. According to the EC, there are 186,142 temporary voters.

Nationwide, there are 10,967 polling stations and 23,112 polling centers. A total of 143 temporary polling stations have been established.

For election security, 79,727 personnel from the Nepali Army, 75,797 from Nepal Police, 34,567 from the Armed Police Force, 1,921 from the National Investigation Department, and 149,000 temporary election police have been mobilized. Altogether, 215,000 employees have been deployed.

The EC has printed a total of 42,251,200 ballot papers for both electoral systems. Additionally, 39 national organizations and four international organizations have been permitted to observe the election.RSS