KATHMANDU, Oct 29: A day after the Election Commission (EC) started printing ballot papers for central parliament and provincial assembly elections, the Supreme Court (SC) administration on Saturday submitted its letter to the EC seeking details about the progress in printing separate ballot papers for the two elections.

Apex court officials submitted the letter to the EC on a public holiday at a time when the election officials said they weren’t in a position to stop the printing process.

After getting the letter on Saturday, EC officials however said that now they weren’t in a position to continue the process ignoring the court order and its communication.

“Since the court’s letter has been submitted on a public holiday, we are yet to check the authenticity of the letter and its intent. We are in confusion. So, we will take an appropriate decision on Sunday only after studying the matter in detail,” a top EC official told Republica.

Soon after receiving the letter, election commissioners and other top officials held an immediate meeting.

Informed officials said the EC is likely to print separate ballot papers for central parliament and provincial assemblies as demanded in the court order.

“After receiving the letter from the apex court, we now have no other option than to follow the court order,” said an official requesting anonymity. 

According to the official, top legal officials from the office of the Attorney General have been invited to the commission on Sunday to provide legal advice before holding an emergency board meeting to decide the ballot paper row.

Responding to a writ petition, the SC earlier on Wednesday had decided to seek a progress report from the election body on printing separate ballot papers.

Under its existing designs, the EC has been printing two separate ballot papers as per the existing arrangements.  On one ballot paper, the FPTP ballot for parliament is designed on the top of the sheet while the FPTP ballot for provincial assemblies is printed at the bottom of the same sheet.
Similarly, under the Proportional Representation (PR) category, the ballot for parliamentary polls is printed on the top while the ballot for provincial assemblies is printed at the bottom on the same sheet. 

The printing of ballots for PR category has already been completed and the election body had started to print ballots as designed earlier, with both the ballots on a single sheet of paper.

 
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