KATHMANDU, March 6: The Election Commission of Nepal (ECN) is mulling to issue a new voter identity card (ID) in view of the local polls scheduled to be held on May 14, in line with the new Election Act.
The ECN has said that it is working toward upgrading old voter ID cards for the upcoming local polls. The existing ID cards will remain valid until the new cards are issued.
“We are upgrading the existing cards so as to distribute them before the local polls. However, we do not scrap the old ID cards immediately. It may work unless the ECN takes a new decision on it,” Surya Prasad Sharma, spokesperson of the ECN told Republica Online.
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According to the EC, the voters’ identity cards issued for the purpose of the second Constituent Assembly held in 2013 will be invalid once the new ID card is issued.
The new Election Act requires that voters must have new voters’ identity cards to be eligible for casting their votes.
The new voters’ identity cards will contain bar codes.
The EC has already issued a public notice for the printing of new voters’ identity cards.
About 14 million voters have already registered their names along with photographs to get new voter identity cards.
The new EC act bars voters from changing their polling locations, ending their possibility of casting votes from the areas they have just migrated to.
