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VOL. 27, NO. 30, April 04, 2008 (Chaitra 22 2064 B.S.)
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"Code Of Conduct Must Be Fully Respected"
Krishna Man Pradhan
KRISHNA MAN PRADHAN, member secretary of General Elections Observation Committee, has a long experience in the election monitoring. At a time when his own organization alone is dispatching 880 observers throughout country, Pradhan spoke to SPOTLIGHT on challenges of election observation. Excerpts:
How many observers are you sending to observe the polls?
GEOC is sending altogether 880 observers throughout the country. This includes 35 national, 35 district, and hundreds in municipalities and village development committees.
Are there other organizations carrying out similar observation?
Democracy and Elections Alliance Nepal (DEAN) is also mobilizing 12,608 observers. This includes 50 national observer, 3 regional, 75 district, 480 constituency level and 12,000 at booth level. There are also other 148 domestic organizations involved in observation.
Do you have any observer alliance at the central level for coordination?
We have alliance of five national observers like DEAN, GEOC, NEOC, NEMA and CAEOF. We are mobilizing about 65,000 observers throughout the country.
How do you see the level of coordination?
Frankly speaking, one of the major challenges for us is to have coordination at the district level. There is virtually no coordination at the district level.
What are the challenges of selecting the observers?
According to Code of Conduct, only the persons passing SLC are eligible for becoming observers. Other organizations are facing difficulties in finding such persons.
Do you appoint any one affiliated with some political parties?
We cannot appoint anybody who has political affiliation. Even we cannot appoint teacher as an observer.
How do you see the level of preparation?
DEAN and GEOC have already prepared preliminary reports. According to our report, there are still many gaps. For instance, large number of voters are unaware about Constituent Assembly. Voters believe that the CA election is like parliamentary election. Even candidates have been talking about development rather than constitution making. Political parties are violating the code of conduct
How do you see the role of international observers?
International observers are just confining to urban areas. They have not shown interest to go to villages and remote parts of Nepal.
How do you see the role of EC?
Election Commission has failed to press political parties to abide by the election code of conduct.
How do you see the law and order situation?
The government is unable to maintain the law and order situation in the country. The government machinery is unable to enforce rule of law. There is no guarantee of rule of law.
How many observers will be there on April 10?
There will be 85,000 national observers and 1000 international observer who will perform the role of election observers.
How do you suggest making the election observation more effective and efficient?
There needs to be coordination among election commission, government and observer groups. They must set up a broader alliance between all the stakeholders.
How do you see the level of awareness among the voters?
There is still confusion about the voting pattern. Voters are unaware about the ballot papers. There are two ballot papers - one for proportional, another for the first past post system. We still have time to supply model ballot papers to voters so that they can rightly use them.
Don't you think there requires a monitoring from Election Commission to see whether observers are abiding by code of conduct?
I have been demanding that kind of system for long. As you know, there is possibility of violation of code of conduct by observers in absence of a team from commission. We hope election commission will set up such kind of group.
At a time when the election code of conduct violation is rampant, what can be done to reduce this number?
Political parties need to express their commitments as well as they need to translate their commitments in reality.
