India gave the assurance during a meeting that Chief Election Commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety had with his Indian counterpart VS Sampath, among other top Indian officials, in New Delhi, Friday.
Nepal requires EVMs with more than 64 voting buttons. The existing EVMs developed in India have only 64 voting buttons, which means they can be used only for 64 parties or candidates. [break]
Altogether 139 political parties have applied to register at the Election Commission (EC) for contesting the upcoming Constituent Assembly (CA) poll.
“A high-level technical committee in India has been working to develop EVMs with a maximum of 384 voting buttons,” Uprety told Republica, adding, “They [Indian officials] will inform us whether or not they are able to deliver the EVMs after the next 10 days, as required.”
He maintained that India has been working on upgrading the existing EVMs with the upcoming CA election in November in mind. “We have urged them to expedite the work as Nepal will conduct CA elections just a month before India´s own general election,” Uprety added.
The chief election commissioner stated that there are still chances of being able to use EVMs in the CA election. “Let´s not lose hope,” he said.
According to Uprety, the EC needs the upgraded EVMs only for the proportional electoral system as the number of political parties will exceed the existing number of voting buttons.
“Existing EVMs with 64 buttons can be used for first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting as they will cover the number of candidates under this electoral system,” he maintained.
The EC needs 20,000 EVMs for the CA election. The constitutional body on May 28 had decided to use EVMs in 119 electoral constituencies in 23 districts.
Asked if Nepal would buy the EVMs if they are available, the chief election commissioner said, “If we can return the EVMs to India after the election, they may be delivered free of cost and we can save around Rs 1.5 billion.”
However, Uprety said if the EC opts for EVMs, they would be used for both the proportional electoral system and FPTP. “Otherwise, two different methods of voting (EVMs for proportional system and no EVMs for FPTP) at the same polling station can confuse voters,” he stated.
The EC has decided to use EVMs at constituencies no. 2 in Rolpa, no. 1 in Kaski and no. 1 in Kathmandu district.
Similarly, the constitutional body has decided to use EVMs in 116 electoral constituencies in Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Saptari, Siraha, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, Bara, Parsa, Rautahat, Rupandehi, Nawalparasi, Kapilvastu, Chitwan, Banke, Bardiya, Dang, Kailali and Kanchanpur districts.
Related story
Time to declare EVMs’ end
