EC launches call centre

By A Staff Reporter 

Kathmandu, Oct. 15:  The call centre set up by the Election Commission has been formally brought into operation from Friday. Concerned people can now call a toll-free number-1102-and get information related to upcoming elections. 

Inaugurating the call centre and launching an election e-bulletin at the EC, Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya said that the facility had come into operation in order to address the election-related queries. 

He urged all voters to make a use of the call centre and get updated about the activities and information on the House of Representatives and Provincial Assemblies elections. The EC informed that it has arranged the required manpower at the call centre so that all queries of the people related to the election can be addressed. 

19 complaints against PR candidates 

Meanwhile, till Friday, EC said that 19 complaints have been filed at its office against the candidates who are in the closed list under proportional representation (PR) category submitted by the political parties to the Election Commission. The election body will continue to receive the complaint till Saturday.

“The commission is studying the received complaint and it will make decisions accordingly,” Assistant Spokesperson of the EC, Surya Prasad Aryal, said. 

Of the 48 political parties, which submitted their closed list to the commission, the closed list of one of the political parties was cancelled after it failed to meet the criteria, EC’s Spokesperson Shaligram Sharma Pouel said. 

The EC had published the names of the candidates nominated in the closed list on October 9. As per the existing laws, if anyone doubts the capability of the candidates whose names are in the list, they can file complaints at the EC within seven days. The final list of the PR candidates would be published on October 26. 

EC starts printing ballot papers for FPTP election 

The election body has started printing ballot papers for the upcoming federal and provincial election for the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system on Friday. Janak Education Materials Centre, state-owned printing company, has started printing FPTP ballot papers from Friday, said Aryal. He said that more than 40 million ballot papers would be printed for the FPTP system. It would take about four weeks to finish printing. Unlike in the previous elections, the ballot paper will have only the symbols of the candidates that are contesting in the particular constituency. This will help reduce the number of invalid votes, according to the EC. He said total 495 types of ballot papers will be printed, including 165 for HoR and 330 ballot papers for the provincial assembly.

The EC had already printed eight types of ballots for the proportional representation (PR) system before the FPTP nominations. The EC is dispatching the ballot papers in the respective districts, said Aryal. Total 22.4 million ballot papers have been printed for the HoR under PR category and 21.8 for the Provincial Assembly.