The Election Commission is set to issue guidelines allowing only 15 days for election campaigning ahead of the federal and provincial assembly elections scheduled for November 20.
Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya said that the campaigning period will be shortened even though candidacies will be filed 39 days before the elections.
”The Commission will also say what can be done in the remaining 24 days even after candidacy has been filed,” said Thapaliya. “Campaigning will not be allowed during this period though. We will issue guidelines based on the prevailing laws.”
The Commission was criticized for increasing the election campaigning period this time. It had earlier allowed 39 days for campaigning this time compared to 30 days in the 2017 elections.
The Commission had said that it had to set aside more time for campaigning as printing ballot papers takes a long time.
“We gave only about 15 days for campaigning during the local level elections. Printing 20 million ballot papers had been sufficient that time. This time we need to print 80 million ballot papers for the federal and provincial elections,” said Shaligram Sharma Poudel, spokesperson for the Commission.
