According to the plan, the government has hired a maximum of 45,000 temporary police personnel. Though the temporary police are to be deployed to different polling booths soon after the training, there are still serious concerns about the possibility of their misuse by the political parties during the election. [break]
Though the suspicion over the misuse of the temporary police is not a new issue, the doubt still prevails not only among the politicians but also the voters, said a highly placed government officer, adding that there are possibilities of such misuse in some districts.
It may be noted here that a meeting of the High Level Political Committee held few months ago had decided against the deployment of the temporary police as it will only create controversies rather than maintaining law and order for the election.
The HLPC had arrived at the conclusion, citing problems related to the temporary police personnel hired for the last CA polls held in 2008. Former election commissioner Birendra Mishra expressed concerns over the possibility of misuse of the temporary police.
“It´s the fault of the Election Commission to agree on hiring of the temporary police,” he said. “Our experiences in the past teach us that political parties try to misuse temporary police to influence the election results.”
He opines that as the government cannot revoke its decision on the temporary police now as the election is around the corner, it can still work to minimize their roles in the election process as far as possible.
But everyone is not that skeptic about the deployment of the temporary police.
“It all depends on how the election officers discharge their duties. The performance of the temporary police depends on them,” said a former home secretary, Umesh Prasad Mainali.
“I cannot rule out the possibility of the misuse of temporary police, besides the civil servants such as public school teachers, and other agents of political parties,” he added. “However, if the chain of command of the Nepal Police is intact, the danger can be minimized.”
According to the Nepal Police, the temporary police will have a minimum role during the election. “They will assist the Nepal Police, help voters and support other election related tasks as per the need, but they don´t have a big role that can affect the voting rights of the people,” said DIG Nawa Raj Silwal, the spokesperson of the Nepal Police.
After the training, the temporary police will be deployed to various districts, other than their home district. As they will be deployed to other districts there is less chances of the being misused, he said.
“The newly hired temporary police will be trained on how to provide security at major polling centers and sub-polling centers to assist the Nepal Police during elections,” he said.
According to him, the training will take place in the respective District Police Offices.
DIG Silwal also informed that they will not be given any weapon on duty and the chain of command will be headed by the Nepal Police deployed at the polling booths.
“During the selection process, we scrutinized the applicants for their age, political background, involvement in any criminal activities and other issues,” DIG Silwal said. “As the applicants are aged between 18 to 50, with no criminal charges, no political affiliation, no physical and mental problems, they are ready to take up the job.”
However, former election commissioner Mishra is not ready to buy that argument.
“How will a two-week training help the temporary police to take up the important role during the election?” he quipped.
There is no mechanism to make the temporary police accountable in case they are involved in the fraud or the violation of the electoral code of conduct, he added.
Though, the government had announced that it would give priority to former servicemen from the police and the army while hiring the temporary police, the government eventually hired only about 15 percent of such candidates, according to the police sources.
Temporary police personnel will be recruited for two months and will get uniform and a monthly salary of Rs 12,000 with extra stipends and daily ration allowance.
A total of 1,69,350 applicants had applied for the temporary police to be mobilized during the CA elections.
Among the total applicants, 19,642 are female.
Among the five development regions, the majority of applicants for the temporary police - altogether 48,718 - are from Central Development Region, with about 8,038 applications submitted in Kathmandu district alone.
Eastern Development Region received 42,862 applications, Western Development Region received 27,539 applications, Mid-Western Development Region received 26,840 applications and Far-Western Development Region received 15,339 applications.
According to DSP Arjun Bahadur Chand, the spokesperson of Metropolitan Police Range Office, 1,655 temporary police in Kathmandu, 541 in Lalitpur, 365 in Bhaktapur are participating in the orientation and training program in the Kathmandu Valley.
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