For Robust Poll Security

With the elections of the federal House of Representatives and provincial assemblies already announced, Nepal Police has started making plans and preparations for poll security in an earnest manner. These elections are taking place on a single day on November 20 throughout the nation. This is an important political event in which all the eligible citizens will be exercising their adult franchise to elect their representatives. This is about exercising the constitutionally guaranteed democratic rights essential for institutionalisation of the political system the nation has adopted following the second people’s movement. While the nation has headed for the elections, one of the most important preparation agenda for the government is security. A reliable security arrangement is necessary to ensure free and fearless voting. Lack of security can invite all kinds of irregularities before, during and even after the voting. 

The essence of voting in a democracy is to let the electorate use their decision in the ballot without an influence of coercion, intimidation and other manipulation. Vote rigging is the sure recipe to give a mandate to the undeserving candidates. As the voting will happen simultaneously all over the country on a single day, this demands the mobilisation of a large number of security personnel in the election centres and voting booths. Security personnel also have to be deployed for the purpose of transporting ballot papers, ballot boxes and other logistical items. Such a poll-centric security mobilisation will leave behind a reduced number of personnel to attend other sectors which also can be equally sensitive and significant. This is a reality that calls for recruitment of temporary police personnel. Such personnel were hired during the local level elections that were held in May. 

In this regard, many of the past personnel can be hired again this time because their experience during the local polls can be of value. Nepal Police says that it is planning to recruit the temporary election security personnel in late October. While some new aspirants are welcome for the recruitment, those with previous experience should be given preference. During a media interaction recently, Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya said that ex-army men and ex-police personnel can be ideal candidates for poll security recruitment. Nepal Police says that it needs to recruit 130,000 security personnel for the November 20 elections. This is 30,000 more than the strength of the temporary police personnel hired for the local level elections. However, the proposal has to be approved by the Ministry of Home under which the nation’s security agencies operate. 

As this electoral security recruitment demands significant budget, a green signal has to come from the Ministry of Finance too. Following the approval from the two ministries, the police can go ahead with the recruitment process. Enough time should be allotted in the recruitment because overwhelming number of unemployed youths are likely to apply for the job. For this reason, the selection process is going to be burdensome. Nepal Police has also proposed that it be given certain number of small arms to be used by the election security personnel if necessary. As these personnel are temporary, purchasing small arms for them is not relevant. During the May local level elections, 2,000 such arms were borrowed from the Nepali Army. This time too, the police plans to borrow pistols from the army. For fairness of polls, things have to be analysed from security point of view. And the polling units in highly security sensitive areas must be adequately manned by security forces.