Security for Polls

With just 55 days to go for the House of Representatives (HoR) polls, election fever is gripping the entire country. Elections, the source of legitimacy to rule a nation in a democracy, also give a fillip to the economy, as large sums of money flood the market for campaign programmes, voter education, temporary police recruitment, printing of ballot papers, setting up polling stations, and counting votes, among other activities. 

As the election campaigns heat up, more and more candidates are readying themselves to join the election fray. In a good piece of news, CPN-UML, which once shied away from participating in the polls, citing security concerns, has started showing its wholehearted readiness for the polls. This newfound enthusiasm is a result of the government's decisive assurance that all necessary security agencies would be mobilised in such a way that leaves no security gap to hold polls in a free, secure, and fair atmosphere. 

Guidelines have recently been finalised to deploy 149,000 election police for the polls following a meeting of officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Nepal Police, and the Armed Police Force (APF). For the election, there will be a total of 10,967 polling stations nationwide, out of which around 3,500 have been classified as highly sensitive from a security perspective. To ensure that no untoward incident will take place in such stations, an additional 35, 000 election police personnel are set to be deployed there. 

What's more, for the first time, the APF will also recruit election police. While APF strike teams previously consisted of 18 personnel, six election police officers will be added this time. Likewise, mobile patrol teams, which earlier comprised seven APF personnel, will now consist of 12 members. In addition, gearing towards poll preparation, the Nepal Police has formed a separate cell, while the Nepali Army (NA) is readying to deploy 80,000 of its total personnel of 96,000.  

Once these security forces work in tandem, they form a formidable force to act as a strong deterrent against those daring to conspire against the poll, as well as an unpassable bulwark against anyone bent on breaching the security.  Indeed, the government is leaving no stone unturned to create an environment conducive to the election. 

At a time when political leaders are expressing concerns about the looted weapons and the inmates who fled the prisons in the recent Gen Z movement, stating that they pose a threat to security, the government has recovered hundreds of such weapons, either seized or returned voluntarily, in the last three and a half months. While a vast majority of the escapees have already been arrested, the police are working to recover the weapons and arrest the fugitives fully well ahead of the poll date. This fact, together with the continuing tireless effort of the security forces, gives no reason to doubt the security arrangements.   

Elections are a potent tool to defuse conflict and create a means of finding a unanimously agreeable solution to the political and constitutional crisis the nation is mired in.  An equitably secure environment for electoral participants is fundamental to their engagement. Political actors must rise above their petty interests and do everything in their power to make the polls a grand success. As for the younger generation, the polls have given them the rare game-changing opportunity to put those at the helm of power who they firmly believe can lead them, as well as the nation, in a way that addresses their aspirations.