Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, the Chief Election Commissioner, said that the ballot papers for the candidacy of Mayor and Deputy Mayor and the Ballot paper for the candidacy of ward chairperson and members will be different in the upcoming local level elections.
He said so at the workshop jointly organized by the Commission and GEOC on July 20, 2022, to review and revise the guidelines on the report of the local level elections submitted by the organizations who worked as observers during the election.
“We are making a law for the upcoming election in which the vote counting of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor will be held at the Election Officer’s Office and the vote-counting of other ballots will be held in the ward. The result will also be published by the ward,” said Thapaliya.
Chief Election Commissioner Thapaliya said that the necessary reforms will be made based on the report submitted by the organizations which participated as observers during the local level election.
Chairperson of INSEC, Dr Indira Shrestha said that in order to reduce the confusion in the counting of votes, separate ballots should be administered for the Mayor and Deputy Mayor or chairperson and deputy chairperson and separate ballot papers for should be introduced for the ward representatives in the future.
She suggested having a system that allows organizations working in this area to be supervised and monitored accordingly.
On behalf of the General Election Supervision Committee, Krishnaman Pradhan shared that the election was relatively clean and fair.
He opined that if the cooperation between the Election Commission and the observing organization can be strengthened, it will help in maintaining the impartiality of the election.
About 100 organizations had applied for election observation in the local level elections and among them 68 organizations were selected.
Out of them, only 37 organizations observed the election, and 12 of them did not submit their reports within the specified timeline.
INSEC had submitted the preliminary report on the day of the election and the final report within the specified timeline.
According to Kamal Bhattarai, Deputy Secretary of the Commission, only INSEC observed the elections held on July 7 in Budhiganga, Bajura. Four INSEC observers observed the election.
Ten organizations and networks including INSEC, NEOC, EOC, etc. are affiliated to the program organizer GEOC.