President permits govt to mobilise Nepali Army in elections

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Sept 26 : President Bidya Devi Bhandari has allowed the government to mobilise the Nepal Army in the November 20 elections to the House of Representatives and Provincial Assemblies.

Issuing a press statement on Sunday, the Office of the President said that the  President granted permission to mobilise the Nepali Army as provisioned  in the ‘Unified Security Action Plan 2022’ for providing unified and coordinated security to the elections as per the Article 66 of the Constitution of Nepal and on the basis of the letter written by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on September 12.  

The PM had sent the letter to the President on the recommendation of the National Security Council and as per a decision of the Cabinet meeting of September 12. 

Preparations have been made to deploy about 300,000 security personnel  from the Nepali Army, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and National Investigation Department in the elections, and of them 75,000 will be from the Nepali Army.

According to the endorsed unified security plan, the Nepali Army personnel will provide security to the printing and transportation of the ballot papers and the voting centres. Likewise, the NA will provide security to jails and VVIPs throughout the elections. 

The Ministry of Home Affairs had passed a special election security plan to mobilise all four security agencies together.