The Election Commission (EC) has directed the ballot boxes from the 32 districts that go for voting in the first phase on November 26 be brought to the respective district headquarters for security.
It has instructed the district election officers in all 32 districts to make arrangements for keeping the ballots at the district headquarters. The ballots from the districts that will go for voting in the first phase will have to be kept safe until the other districts go for voting in the second phase on December 7. Counting all over the country will start only after the second phase of polls.
EC Spokesperson Navaraj Dhakal said ballots of districts that have two constituencies will also be kept together. Sindhupalchowk, Dhading, Nuwakot, Gorkha and Baglung are the districts going for voting in the first phase that have two cosntituencies.
Ballots will be kept under CCTV surveillance in Lamjung, according to RSS.
District Election Officer in Nuwakot Lok Jung Shah said 25 police personnel will be deployed round the clock for security of the ballot boxes. “The Nepal Army will patrol outside round the clock while 10 armed Nepal Police personnel and 15 Armed Police Force (APF) men will provide security inside the building,” he told Setopati. “Even government staffers will require a pass to go to the office where the ballot boxes will be kept,” he revealed.
Ballot boxes will be kept at the District Treasury and Controller Office in Nuwkot. The District Election Office has issued separate passes even for the staffers employed there.
Three-tier security will be in place for ballot boxes even in Sindhupalchowk. “Nepal Police men will be in the first cordon, APF in the second and Nepal Army in the third,” District Election Officer in Singhupalchowk Bijay Kumar Karki said. “We will allow representatives of political parties to stay in tents outside the building if they wish,” he added. He revealed that the room where the ballot boxes will be kept will be locked and sealed.
Nepal Police has said there will be no prolems in security as even the temporary policemen deployed at the polling booths will be mobilzed during vote counting.
