REPUBLICA, July 16: With the expiry on Monday of the deadline set by the Election Commission (EC) for registering voters in the new electoral rolls with photos and biometrics, altogether 12.1 million voters across the country have been registered.
The number is 5.5 million lesser than the total number of voters registered for the 2008 Constituent Assembly (CA) election. Altogether 17.6 million voters were registered for the 2008 CA election. [break]
However, Election Commissioner Ayodhi Prasad Yadav does not accept that such a large numbers of voters are left to be registered in the new electoral rolls.
“According to the latest census report, the total population of those above 18 years is 16.4 million and the latest economic survey conducted by the government shows that 3 million people are abroad for employment while we have registered 12.1 million voters,” he maintained.
He said the number of voters did not increase as the new electoral rolls with photos and biometrics are more scientific than the previous ones.
“There are no chances of duplication in the new electoral rolls and voters who are no longer alive have been removed from the list,” Commissioner Yadav argued. “Also, some voters have willingly not gotten registered.”
According to Yadav, the EC has been registering voters in the new electoral rolls with photos and biometrics since September 15, 2010.
He said that the EC will begin to verify the new electoral rolls from Tuesday. As per the timeline issued by the constitutional body for the upcoming CA polls, it will ask voters to file any objections or claims over the voters lists, probe the issues and finalize the new electoral rolls and publish the final list between July 15 and August 5.
Asked if the commission would give another chance to voters for registration, EC Spokesman Bir Bahadur Rai said, “We will not give another chance due to lack of time.” He added, “It will also affect the already scheduled election calendar.”
The EC on June 6 set mid-July of this year as the cutoff date for eligible voting age for the upcoming CA election. The commission had also decided that eligible citizens can register themselves in the new electoral rolls with photos and biometrics by July 15.
According to Section B of Sub-clause 1 of Clause 5 of the Electoral Rolls Act, 2063, a Nepali citizen who has completed the age of 18 years on or before the last day of the month of Chaitra (around 13 April) in the calendar year immediately preceding the year in which the electoral rolls were compiled, will be eligible to vote.
Nepali citizens who had completed 18 years of age on or before the last day of Mangsir of the year 2063 (Dec 15, 2006) were declared eligible voters in the CA election of 2008.
The constitutional body had recently deployed mobile teams along with teams fielded across the country by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) in order to register new voters in the electoral rolls. MoHA had deployed its mobile teams to distribute citizenship certificates, which are mandatory for new voters to be registered in the new electoral rolls.
SC stays voter registration sans citizenship
KATHMANDU, July 15: The Supreme Court (SC) has issued an interim order against the move by the Election Commission (EC) to register voters without citizenship certificates.
Responding to a writ petition filed by Advocate Purna Chandra Poudel, a single bench of Justice Sushila Karki on Monday ordered the defendants to furnish clarifications within 15 days as to why the move was taken.
The SC order comes on the same day that the deadline set by the EC to register in the new electoral rolls expired.
Advocate Poudel filed the writ petition on Wednesday, arguing that the EC´s step was against the Interim Constitution.
The EC had recently issued a public notice to list voters without citizenship certificates for the November 19 Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, on the basis of names registered for the last CA polls.
Dubbing the notice as illegal and unconstitutional, the writ petitioner has urged that the apex court to annul the step, and to issue an interim order against it. The EC and the prime minister´s office are named as defendants in the writ petition.
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