EC to overhaul electoral register

KATHMANDU, May 18: The Election Commission (EC) has begun work on an ambitious project to overhaul the electoral register by introducing the latest technology. For that it has already completed a pilot project in all the five development regions.

The ambitious project, an official claimed, aims at ending the use of proxy votes, rigging and ensuring that bona fide voters are not deprived of their right to vote. [break]

“Once this plan comes into implementation, such practices will come to an end,” Acting Chief Election Commissioner Nil Kantha Uprety, told myrepublica.com.

Uprety claimed there will be no chance of misuse as photograph and fingerprints of genuine voters will be electronically imprinted alongside their name in the voter´s list. “Besides, the list will also have imprints of two thumbs and two index fingers,” he said.

Teams mobilized by the EC will fan out door-to-door across the country to collect the data. They will establish registration centers in villages, where the voters will submit their photographs and finger prints.

The data collected from villages will be compiled and verified in each district headquarters to remove multiple entries or duplication. Then a central database will be created by integrating all the data collected nationwide.

Photograph and fingerprints to be imprinted along the voters´ namelist

Additional around 15,000 to 18,000 employees to be mobilized

To invest around two billion rupees

Pilot project

The EC has completed a pilot project in this connection. The commission conducted data registration in two VDCs in Kathmandu, one VDC each in Solukhumbu, Rupandehi, Dang and Dadeldhura districts under the pilot project. In the pilot project, it collected details of 58,000 voters along with their photographs and fingerprints. Now the EC is all set to launch nationwide registration.

The EC has estimated that it needs around 10 months to complete the registration process. Around 4,000 laptops, 4,000 web cameras and 4,000 scanners will be used during the campaign.

In several districts, the commission will also have to make electricity arrangement on its own. Around 15,000 to 18,000 employees will be mobilized for the purpose. And almost all the employees will be temporarily recruited by the EC for the same.

Besides collecting other details, the EC will also update voters´ education status. The details will be recorded only after verifying it on the basis of citizenship certificates.

Such a comprehensive personal inventory, which is very essential for development of any country, is being created in Nepal for the first time. The EC has estimated that around two billion rupees will be required for the project.

The EC is planning to prepare the database in coordination and cooperation with other state organs which have also similar responsibilities. The EC, the government and other bodies have agreed to develop the database for multipurpose usages.

The government has a policy to issue National Identity Card to all the citizens above 16 years. The Civil Registry Department under the Ministry of Local Development also has a similar responsibility.

Therefore, the government agreed to use the EC´s database as proposed by the former. The EC has committed to provide the data to the government as well.

“The government can print out the national ID card as and when needed using our data,” he said. The EC has proposed to generate a unique number for each citizen. The same number will be used for the ID card, voter´s name list and for other purposes.

Registration in three phases

In 19 districts in the Himalayan region, the EC has planned to start the registration process within a couple of weeks. It will take around two months in the region. Altogether, 780 teams will spread out in the 19 Himalayan districts simultaneously.

In the second phase, the EC will start registration in all the 58 municipalities starting mid-July and complete it in two months. Work in the rest of the areas will start by mid-September and complete by January next year.

“We are also planning to address concern of the people who are not able to cast their votes because they stay outside their districts during the elections,” Uprety said. The EC is also mulling over options to allow them to cast their votes at the place of their convenience.

The EC also plans to use Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in all the 20,000 polling centers. “But it depends on the electoral system that the political parties adopt in the new constitution because EVM voting is not possible in some of the electoral systems,” he said.

thira@myrepublica.com