According to EC officials, the size of ballot papers for the proportional representation system will be larger as the number of political parties has increased significantly compared to the last CA polls. [break]
“We have already requested to the Japanese government via its embassy [in Kathmandu] to provide large-sized ballot boxes,” Chief Election Commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety told Republica on Saturday.
He said that the constitutional body will buy 20,000 large sized ballot boxes for the proportional representation system.
According to Uprety, the commission will use the grant assistance of Japan itself to buy large-sized ballot boxes.
“Though we need over 18,000 large-sized ballot boxes, we have decided to buy 20,000 boxes,” added the chief election commissioner.
Uprety informed that the existing ballot boxes can accommodate only 450 ballot papers under proportional electoral system. The EC has 58,000 old ballot boxes which were used in the 2008 CA election.
“Instead of one ballot box we must use two if the old boxes are applied for the proportional electoral system in the forthcoming CA polls,” the chief election commissioner said, “It will be difficult from security point of view to handle if two ballot boxes are used instead of one.”
Crucial MToT for CA polls concludes
The EC on Saturday concluded master trainer of training (MToT) on polling and counting for the upcoming CA election. Komal Dhamala, executive director of Electoral Education and Information Center (EEIC) at the Election Commission (EC), said that the MToT is a crucial program of the commission as it is related to operation and management of polling centers and vote counting.
Altogether 30 officials including under-secretaries and joint-secretaries of the EC, one official from each development region and officials from National Educational Development Center, among others, were trained in the MToT held at Godawari.
Dhamala said those who were trained in the two-day MToT will train 480 persons in 20 groups at 11 places across the country.
The 480 officials will train 40,000 polling officials and assistant polling officials about polling and counting.
At last, the 40,000 officials will train 140,000 persons for poling and counting for the forthcoming CA election.
The constitutional body has already begun to dispatch its volunteers for voter education. Altogether 15,000 volunteers will participate in voter education.
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