13.6 million ballot papers printed so far

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Apr. 24: The Election Commission (EC) has stated that printing of 13.6 million ballot papers for 58 districts has been completed till Saturday for the local level election. The EC said it was rapidly printing required ballot papers some 20 days before the local election.

Shaligram Sharma Paudel, spokesperson for the commission, said that the commission completed printing of 13.6 million ballot papers out of 19.4 million till Saturday. However, the commission will distribute these ballot papers among election offices once the printing completes.  

Addressing a press conference organised in the commission, Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya said that the ballot papers would be of different types as there were many parties and candidates. 

He drew the attention of the parties to emphasise on the use of electric machines in the coming days as it would be cumbersome to hold the election by printing ballot papers. 

Thapaliya informed that the EC completed almost all the preparations for the local election. Stating that the cooperation of all was essential to make the election free, fair, fearless and transparent, the Chief Commissioner urged all parties concerned to pay attention to the implementation of the election code of conduct. He expressed confidence that there would be no clash between the parties as the nomination of candidates on April 28 and 29 would be as per the provisions of the Registration Act. He informed that the teams had reached the respective places with all the election materials within this week. 

According to the election schedule, parties will register the nomination in the respective election offices claiming candidacy for next two days on April 24 and 25, then it will publish the list 

of the candidates. After that, it will provide some time to file a complaint against the candidates and decide on the complaints. Similarly, the commission stated that there is a programme to publish the list of nominated candidates on April 30, withdraw the name of the candidate on April 29 and publish the final list of candidates and allot election symbols to the candidates on April 30.