With the upcoming House of Representatives election in mind, the Election Commission has opened new voter registration until November 16. However, in Dailekh, relatively few new voters have been added. Participants in a discussion program organized by the Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC) Dailekh on October 29 stated that there has been a lack of enthusiasm for new voter registration.
Narbahadur Salami, Chief of the District Election Office, Dailekh, said, “In the one-month period since the voter registration opened, the number of new registrations has reached only around one and a half thousand; we have not received the number of new voters we expected. Because the voter registration was suddenly opened after the election announcement, fewer voters have come.”
Within one month of the Commission opening new voter registration, 137 new voters were added in the neighboring district of Jajarkot, 203 in Kalikot, 575 in Surkhet, and 508 in Achham. However, compared to those districts, Dailekh has shown relatively low enthusiasm.
Participants stated that people are not interested in registering as new voters because voter registration does not serve any purpose apart from voting itself, and because the elected representatives they supported have failed to deliver encouraging development work. They also expressed disappointment, claiming that representatives have acted arbitrarily and with bias.
The discussion program, which included representatives from political parties, civil society leaders, and stakeholders including the District Election Office, concluded that there is a need to increase awareness among voters themselves and to facilitate voter registration through support from local governments and political parties.
Sandesh Shrestha, District Treasurer of Nepali Congress; Yam Narayan Upadhyaya from UML; Bhesraj Thapa, Karnali Province member from the Maoist Centre; Ain Bahadur Shahi from Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP); Prithvi KC from CPN (Unified Socialist); and Ran Bahadur Singh, Vice Chair of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) pledged that their respective parties would take initiative to boost new voter registration.
Prem Bahadur Thapa, District Chair of Nepal Bar Association; Dil Kumari Chand, District Chair of NGO Federation; rights activists Sabina BK and Resham Bishwakarma; journalists Bishal Sunar and Tirtha Bhandari; and Gen-Z representatives Himraj Basnet and Lokesh Giri emphasized the need to raise awareness in communities about the importance of voter participation.
At the event, Madan Lamichhane, Computer Operator at the District Election Office, Dailekh, demonstrated practical exercises on how to fill out new voter registration details online through the Election Commission’s website, take photographs at the election office, and use the digital fingerprint system.
Facilitating the program, INSEC District Representative and also Chair of the Federation of Nepali Journalists, Dailekh, Amar Sunar urged community leaders to encourage timely voter registration, as the process remains open until November 16.
Amar Sunar