The commission has been holding discussion with MoHA officials to form such a rapid response mechanism at a time when rampant violation of the election code of conduct by various political parties and their candidates have been reported in various districts. [break]
“It [flying squads] will be a temporary mechanism comprising security personnel and the EC staffers and aimed mainly at stopping incidents of violation of the election code of conduct,” Chief Election Commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety told Republica on Sunday.
Uprety said that the commission wants to mobilize the Flying Squads to three districts of the Kathmandu Valley and some other districts which are prone to rampant violation of the election code.
Election Commissioner Ila Sharma said the commission is considering forming the flying squads as the EC´s policy is zero tolerance to election code violation. She said the EC´s has recently issued instruction to act first and do the paper work later.
“We want immediate and visible result on incidents of the poll code violation,” added Sharma.
Asked about structure and number of the Flying Squads, Uprety said, “We are yet to decide about it.”
According to EC officials, the Flying Squads will reach the spot immediately in order to inspect or stop violation of the election code of conduct.
“As chief returning officers and returning officers are responsible for taking action against those who breach the poll code, the Flying Squads will further discourage candidates/parties from violating the election code of conduct,” maintained the chief election commissioner.
The EC on Sunday also decided to deploy one more official each in 38 districts that have more than three election constituencies in order to oversee the issues related to the election code of conduct.
The commission has already formed a high level panel headed by the chief election commissioner to take action on major incidents of violation of the election code of conduct. The four election commissioners are the members of the high-level panel.
The constitutional body has authorized the four election commissioners to take action against those found guilty of breaching election code of conduct on the spot.
Election Commissioner Dolakh Bahadur Gurung has been authorized to oversee violation of the poll code in the Western Development Region, Ila Sharma in the Central Development Region, Ram Bhakta PB Thakur in Mid-western and Far-western regions and Election Commissioner Ayodhee Prasad Yadav will be responsible for looking into incidents of the election code violation in the Eastern Development Region.
The high-level panel is responsible for taking decision on incidents of the election code of conduct about which the four election commissioners cannot take necessary decision on their own.
As per the election code of conduct, any candidate who is found breaching the election code of conduct can be fined maximum Rs 100,000 and the EC can annul their candidacy and can disqualify them from contesting polls for six years.
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