Candidate nomination on Sept 23, 26

KATHMANDU, AUG 02 -
The Election Commission has set September 23 and 26 for political parties to nominate their candidates contesting the November Constituent Assembly elections under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) and proportional representation systems.

Unveiling a detailed election action plan 109 days ahead of the polls, the EC on Thursday said the list of the candidates will be made public the day after the nominations—September 24 and 27—to solicit public complaints, if any. The EC will take another day to investigate complaints filed against the candidates and take a call on whether to approve the names. On the subsequent day, the EC will publish the second list of the candidates that go through the public complaints and its own scrutiny.

In line with the electoral law, all convicts of serious crimes will not find a place in the list. However, unlike in the past, those accused of crimes will be allowed to contest the polls. In June, major political parties amended the electoral law to this effect after strong criticism from different quarters.

The parties contesting the elections will get two more days to withdraw their candidates after the second list is out.

EC spokesperson Bir Bahadur Rai said the EC will take decisions on arranging logistics and human resources right after the report of the constituency delimitation commission (CDC) is released.

“We are waiting for the report of the CDC to move ahead,” said Chief Election Commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety. However, given the serious differences among the parties on issues concerning constituencies, the CDC is not sure when it would table its final report.

So far, the EC has completed voter registration with photos and finger prints, while the party registration process is at its final stages. Over 12.3 million voters are already registered into the digital voter registration system, while 109 parties have been registered with the EC so far.

“The EC is all prepared, technically, for the November elections. Verification of the voter roll and party registration will end by mid-August,” Uprety said, adding, “After that, the only thing we need is the CDC report.”

EC officials said they will begin installing polling stations and deployment of election officials after they get the CDC report and after the number of parties contesting the polls is finalised.

EC concerned

The Election Commission is concerned about the way the Constituency Delimitation Commission (CDC) is seeking term extensions and about the demand from some political parties to re-open voter registration.

Formed on June 25, the CDC was asked to prepare a report within a month. While its term was extended for 10 more days after it failed to submit a report within one month, the commission is now again seeking more time. This time around it says a new member who has just joined the CDC needs time to get acquainted with the commission’s proceedings.

“We have clearly asked them to submit the report by mid-August, but we don’t understand why the CDC is seeking term extensions again and again,” an EC

official said.

23 more parties registered

The EC has added 23 more political parties in its list of parties contesting the polls. With this, the number of parties registered with the EC so far has gone up to

109. The EC has also approved of the election

symbols for these parties.

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