KATHMANDU, April 2: In the wake of the Election Commission (EC) demand for distribution of citizenship certificates in order to accommodate in the new electoral rolls those who have attained the voting age but do not yet have such certificates, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) has made preparations to deploy around 800 mobile teams across the country for the purpose.
According to a high level source involved in the planning, MoHA will deploy mobile teams across all 75 districts immediately after the Finance Ministry and the Ministry of Peace and Restructuring (MoPR) release the necessary budget. [break]
MoHA mobile teams will work together with teams from the EC that will register the new voters in the electoral rolls.
“The Finance Ministry will provide the budget for about 500 mobile teams while MoPR will provide a budget for 305 teams,” said the source, adding, “If we receive the budget from the ministries at the earliest, we are ready to deploy our teams within a week.”
MoHA has made all technical preparations for citizenship distribution, including printing of citizenship certificates.
Also, MoHA has already directed all chief district offices (CDOs) to remain prepared for the mobile teams and distribution of citizenship certificates.
In a press release Sunday, Spokesperson of MoHA Shankar Prasad Koirala urged all eligible persons to take their citizenship certificates and register their names in the new electoral rolls.
“MoHA has placed citizenship distribution on high priority as it is essential for the new voter registrations with photos and biometrics,” said a senior official at the ministry on condition of anonymity.
Asked about the number of security personnel to be deployed with the mobile teams, MoHA officials said this was yet to be finalized.
Meanwhile, the EC on Monday decided to deploy new teams to begin voter registrations with photos and biometrics, side by side with the mobile teams from MoHA.
Joint-secretary at the EC Madhu Prasad Regmi said that deployment of EC teams with MoHA mobile teams will be cost effective as well as less troublesome to people as they will be registered in the electoral rolls at the same time as they get their citizenship certificates.
Earlier, the EC had asked the government to provide security for its officials involved in updating the electoral rolls as they were obstructed by the cadres of some fringe political parties.
An alliance of various fringe parties led by the CPN-Maoist has been obstructing the ongoing voter registration work across the country, stating that the decision to conduct fresh polls was unconstitutional.
Leaders of the alliance on Monday handed in a memorandum to Chief Election Commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety, urging him to stop the electoral process. In response, the EC urged them not to obstruct the voter registration as it was a regular process.
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