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VOL. 27, NO. 30, April 04, 2008 (Chaitra 22 2064 B.S.)
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POLL PREPARATION
Logistics On The Move
Movement of electoral logistics near completion, election materials
including 40 million ballot papers have been transported
By SANJAYA DHAKAL
The elections, generally, involve the movement of huge quantity of
logistics up to the remotest corners of the country.
This time as the Constituent Assembly (CA) will be conducted in two
categories – the first-past-the-post (FPTP) and proportional
representation – the quantity of election materials have also
increased.
The Election Commission (EC) spokesperson Laxman Bhattarai, on Sunday
(March 30) announced that printing of all the ballot papers have been
completed.
He said that 20.4 million ballot papers of 240 different kinds (for
each constituency) for FPTP and 20.8 million ballot papers of single
kind for PR have been printed and are being transported to respective
constituencies.
The government-owned Janak Educational Material Center had printed all
the ballot papers.
"Helicopters have been used to transport the ballot papers to the
remote constituencies – in 44 constituencies of 27 districts," said
Bhattarai.
He said all the 61 different election materials have been dispatched
to the districts. "In districts, they are now packing materials for
constituencies therein," he informed.
There will be 20,880 polling centers in 9829 different places in this
election. Each center will have between 5 and 13 polling staffs. In
total, 234,000 polling staffs will be deployed.
The district with maximum number of polling centers is Syangja-1 with
131 centers.
There are 17.611 million voters in total – 8.888 million male and 8.73
female. The constituency with maximum number of voters is Gulmi-2 with
104,888 voters. In a polling center in Lali Gurans primary school in
Chame VDC of Manang district, there are only 23 voters.
Total of 74 parties had registered with the EC but only 55 are taking
part in CA election. 54 parties submitted closed-list for PR election.
Of them, only 11 parties have fielded PR candidates in more than 30
percent seats. Only those parties fielding in more than 30 percent
need to abide by the rule of reservation for women, Madhesis, Dalits,
Janajatis, backward regions and other groups.
Total of 3970 candidates – 367 women and 3580 men – are in the fray
for FPTP election.
Six thousand candidates including 3068 women, 1981 Madhesis, 680
Dalits, 2138 Janajatis, 183 from backward regions and 1750 from other
groups are in the fray for PR election. Here the sum of individual
groups exceeds the total number of candidates because one individual
candidate could represent multiple groups.
There will be over 80,000 domestic election observers representing 148
different organizations at national and local level.
Likewise, 880 international observers will also be deployed across the country.
"The EC has invited the election commissioners from South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries to observe the
election," said Bhattarai.
In Kathmandu-1 constituency, the EC will for the first time in
nation's history, employ Electronic Voting Machines. The constituency
includes ward numbers 10, 11, 32 and 34 of the Kathmandu metropolitan
city.
"In present estimate, the EC will spend Rs 2.73 billion to conduct the
election – from the announcement of election till declaration of
results," Bhattarai informed.
The EC has set up a Media Center in Kantipath to facilitate all the
information-related activities and smoothen the flow of information to
national and international journalists.
