Election Commissioner Sudhir Kumar Sah has carried out onsite monitoring of the ongoing election campaign in Bhaktapur Tuesday in connection with the House of Representatives and State Assembly elections.
In course of the monitoring, various election publicity materials including posters, banners, hoarding boards and party flags installed and hung at different public places flouting the election code of conduct at local Drutapati, Durbar Square area, Kwachhen, Taumadi and Sukuldhoka, among others, were ordered removed.
A team led by the election commissioner Sah carried out a monitoring of these areas after a complaint was received at the Election Commission stating that the election publicity campaign was taking place in the district in violation of the election code of conduct and in a way to confuse the voters.
Talking to media persons on the occasion, Sah said the police and the administration have been instructed to remove the election publicity materials as these materials which have been placed flouting the code and in a manner confusing the voters.
He urged the political parties, candidates, the party cadres and supporters to keep in mind the election code of conduct while conducting their election campaign and this applied also in the case of election rallies, mass meetings, voting and vote counting.
Sah warned that the Commission would be more stringent in the coming days against the code violators. The election code of conduct prohibits placing the party flags, banners and other election publicity materials at public places including roads.
In course of the monitoring it was found that compared to other parties, the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, the CPN (Maoist Center) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) had placed various election publicity materials like their flags and festoons of paper with images of their election symbols over across the road, according to the EC monitoring team.
The monitoring team included the Bhaktapur district chief election officer Bholaraj Sharma, election officer Uttam Silwal, Kathmandu district chief district officer Dronaraj Pokharel, joint attorney at the Election Commission, Gita Prasad Timilsina and Kathmandu district police Kiran Rana, among other officials.
