Voting has finished in 32 districts in the first phase of federal and provincial assembly elections. The ballot boxes from 37 federal and 74 provincial constituencies of these districts will be opened only after voting in the remaining 45 districts in the second phase on December 7.
There is curiosity about how the ballot boxes will be kept safe for the 11 days. Spokesperson at the Election Commission (EC) Nava Raj Dhakal said the ballot boxes will be kept safely at the respective district headquarters.
“The ballots will be kept under supervision, control and management of the chief returning officer and returning officers,” Dhakal said claiming that the EC is confident about safety of the ballots. “They will decide where the ballot boxes will be kept,” he added. They will also decide the kind of security arrangements that needs to be made.
“Election is held under civilian command in a democracy,” he stated. “The EC will move forward coordinating with representatives of the political parties.”
He urged nobody to doubt safety of ballots pointing that the ballot boxes will be sealed and kept in a security cordon.
“The ballot boxes will be kept in view of the political parties,” federal candidate of Nepali Congress (NC) from Gorkha-1 Chin Kaji Shrestha said. “The government is capable of providing security for ballot boxes. Nobody should have a doubt about that,” he added. He revealed that ballot boxes were similarly kept even during the general elections in 1999 that was also held 14 days apart in two stages.
The main opposition CPN-UML, however, is suspicious of the safety of ballot boxes. “We are not assured. There can be tampering while bringing the ballot boxes from the polling centers to the district headquarters, and even while being stored at the district headquarters,” UML leader Sher Dhan Rai, who is contesting for provincial assembly from Bhojpur (B) from the left alliance of UML and Maoist Center, said.
He revealed that the party cadres will accompany the officials transporting the ballot boxes reminiscing how UML had been vigilant even during the general election in 1999.
Maoist candidate from Salyan Tek Bahadur Basnet said the parties must be more vigilant during transportation of ballot boxes from the polling centers to the district headquarters. “The ballot boxes are locked and sealed. Our representatives will also keep an eye,” he stated. “We can rest assured if we manage to bring the ballot boxes safely to the district headquaretrs,” he opined.
The then UCPN (Maoist) had accused that the ballot boxes were changed after seeing that the party was losing badly in the second Constituent Assembly (CA) election in 2013 even though a government of technocrats led by the then chief justice Khila Raj Regmi, that was formed on proposal of the party, had conducted the election.
The first meeting of the CA was delayed by around two months due to the protest by the Maoists who threatened to even boycott the CA. Madhes-based parties, that also performed very badly in comparison to the first CA election, had also backed the protest of Maoists.
A probe committee was formed under lawmaker of the then Sadbhawana Party Laxman Lal Karna to investigate the so-called rigging of election. The committee investigated going to different places but could not find any evidence of rigging.
