KATHMANDU, Oct 25: Despite serious objections from Madhes-based parties, the Election Commission (EC) has expedited the new voters´ registration process in all the municipalities of the country in its bid to remove fake voters from electoral rolls.
The EC has completed the first phase of registration campaign in municipalities and is expected to complete the second phase by mid-November. [break]
The EC will then move to Village Development Committees (VDCs) and mountainous regions for registration. “We plan to complete the program by mid-June next year,” said EC spokesperson Shyam Sundar Sharma. According to him, of the 1.7 million estimated voters, the EC has already registered 800,000 in the first phase.
The EC has come under fire from Madhes-based parties in some Tarai municipalities where the registration campaign has been stalled. The Madhes-based parties have been opposing the provision of compulsory citizenship for registration, saying thousands of people in the region have been left without citizenships and that would deprive them of voting rights.
The registration campaign has been stalled in many Tarai districts including Banke, Nawalparasi, Kapilvastu, Sunsari and Mahottari districts.
According to Sharma, the EC may launch the registration program in the municipalities where it has been stalled after reaching an understanding with the Madhes-based parties, or people may directly register their name with the EC district offices later.
The Madhes-based parties have demanded that the EC should accept the existing voters´ list as one of the basis for registration. After much pressure from the Madhes-based parties, the EC officials and the Madhes-based parties had even reached an understating to accept the existing voters´ list as a basis for registration.
But the agreement was not signed. “It was an understanding at the bureaucratic level only and was not formally signed by the EC,” said EC spokesperson Sharma. He said the EC would move ahead with the provision of compulsory citizenship for registration in the voters´ lists.