The government is set to mobilize around 3.25 lakh security personnel for the upcoming House of Representatives elections. A meeting of the Security Committee chaired by Home Minister Om Prakash Aryal has decided to mobilize 314,000 security personnel for the elections scheduled for 21 Falgun. Around 130,000 temporary police officers will be recruited for this purpose.

According to a Home Ministry source, about 79,000 Nepali Army personnel, about 72,000 Nepal Police personnel, 33,000 Armed Police personnel and 130,000 temporary police personnel will be mobilized for election security. The Home Ministry has stated that the election security action plan has been approved to deploy around 3.25 lakh security personnel after the Election Commission finalizes the voter list, polling stations and polling stations.

Ananda Kafle, spokesperson for the Home Ministry, informed that the upcoming election security plan has been formulated based on the 2079 House of Representatives elections and changing challenges. The Security Committee meeting on Sunday approved the ‘Integrated Security Plan-2082’ for the election and decided to mobilize the Army, Police, Armed Police Force, National Investigation Department and Temporary Police. With the approval of the security action plan by the Security Committee, the National Security Council will now have to recommend to the Council of Ministers for the mobilization of the Army. The President must approve the mobilization of the army after getting a decision from the Council of Ministers on the recommendation of the National Security Council chaired by the Prime Minister.

With the approval of the integrated action plan, security personnel will be mobilized targeting the elections from 10 Mangsir. A single and joint mechanism of all four security agencies was formed to prepare the election security plan, and the Central Security Committee meeting on 9 Asoj had formed an integrated election security plan task force under the coordination of Home Spokesperson Kafle.

The Police, Armed Forces and National Investigation Departments, led by the Assistant Lieutenant General of the Army, submitted a security and necessary arrangements blueprint, which was submitted to the mechanism led by Joint Secretary Kafle. The same integrated blueprint was presented in the Central Security Committee meeting and approved after discussion and review on Sunday.

The weapons/ammunition looted from the police during the 24 Bhadra protests and prisoners who escaped from prison have been identified as the main security challenges for the elections, while the allegations and counter-accusations between the election party and the party demanding the restoration of the House of Representatives, party workers and Gen-G supporters, and the situation that this may lead to, have been included as security challenges for the elections. The risk of clashes and clashes between political party leaders and workers who suffered physical damage during the Gen-G movement and supporters of the Gen-G movement has also been pointed out as a security challenge.

The army, police and armed forces have been conducting joint security patrols across the country for the past one month after the insecurity created by the weapons looted and prisoners who escaped during the Gen-G movement. In the elections too, in the same modality, security agencies will be deployed in three categories as per the need, namely, joint and single patrols and security action plan, according to the Home Ministry official.

Currently, there are about 100,000 security personnel in the army, about 80,000 in the police, and about 37,000 in the armed forces. The approved security action plan states that all security personnel, except for essential and office security, will be deployed for election security.

On 24 Bhadra, vandalism, arson, and looting of government/public and private property took place. During that time, 14,043 prisoners who were in police custody during criminal investigations and 28 prisons and juvenile correctional facilities across the country escaped. More than 1,200 weapons belonging to the police alone were looted. Out of that, about 400 weapons have not been recovered. About 5,000 prisoners are yet to be returned to prison.

In the 2079 elections to the House of Representatives and Provincial Assemblies, the government deployed about 550,000 security personnel and employees. Of these, about 300,000 were security personnel and 250,000 were employees. According to Kafle, spokesperson for the Ministry of Home Affairs, in the previous election, 3,518 areas were classified as highly sensitive, 4,529 areas as sensitive, and 2,889 areas as general.

In addition, temporary polling stations were assigned to prisoners and those in old age homes and the election was held. Kafle said that after the final voter list and polling stations are finalized by the commission, the mobilization of manpower will be somewhat up and down in the approved security action plan, and otherwise, the necessary strategy will be implemented from there.

In the election, the police and temporary personnel will be deployed in the inner perimeter as police assistants, and the army and armed police will be deployed in areas considered sensitive and highly sensitive based on security challenges as needed. Temporary police deployed in the election are being provided with basic services and salaries like police personnel. In the past, they were deployed for a fixed period of 40 days, so this time too, the police have stated that they will be urged to recruit and mobilize resources based on the same concept.