A joint task force has been formed under the leadership of the Nepal Army to prepare an integrated security plan for the upcoming House of Representatives elections to be held on Falgun 21. The task force, led by the Assistant Lieutenant General of the Nepal Army, includes representatives from the Nepal Police, Armed Police Force, and the National Investigation Department. The joint task force has been given a mandate to draft an integrated security action plan related to the elections.

According to Army Spokesperson Assistant Lieutenant Colonel Rajaram Basnet, the task force will prepare a complete blueprint for the security management and mobilization of human resources required for the election.

‘According to the Election Security Management Procedure 2078, an integrated security ad hoc committee has been formed. It will prepare the blueprint required for election security and submit it to the relevant bodies,’ Spokesperson Basnet told Kantipur, ‘After that, human resources for election security will be mobilized accordingly.’

The Army has already written to the Police, Armed Forces and Investigation Departments to send representatives for the formation of the task force. As per the same letter, the Police has deployed SSP Basant Rajoure of the Operations Department and the Armed Forces has deployed SSP Rajesh Upreti of the Operations Department.

In which ‘layer’ will the Army, Police and Armed Forces be mobilized in the election? In what form will the necessary coordination be done for this? In what form will the Himalayan, Hilly and Terai and Valley be classified based on security challenges? Based on the security challenges, how will the security situation in the district be assessed from the polling station? The task force will also prepare a blueprint on how to recruit temporary police and how to manage it, as well as how to manage the security of voters, candidates, election staff, ballot papers and ballot boxes.

A blueprint for manpower mobilization will be prepared by considering how the Election Commission determines the polling station and polling center. A security official informed that discussions are ongoing with the commission for this.

‘A plan of action is prepared to deal with the changing situation based on the security strategy and action plan decided in the past. The task force, comprising representatives of all four agencies, initially studies and reviews the past action plan and what challenges have emerged in the changing situation, and then studies and analyzes it to prepare a blueprint,’ said a DIG of the police.

After the blueprint is approved, the security agencies are preparing to set up a command center jointly and individually. In addition, all four security agencies will form a central election cell at their headquarters in the center. The security agencies have also instructed to form their own election cells at the provincial and district levels.

Similarly, the security agencies have stated that they are working by forming an internal task force to manage the arrangements and manpower required for the election and the estimated budget. Officials informed that the report with the suggestions given by the task forces will be submitted to the Home Ministry.

The security agencies have concluded that the security situation across the country is challenging after the Gen-G protests on 23 and 24 Bhadra. The security agencies have already launched a special operation against the weapons and ammunition looted from the police on 24 Bhadra, the prisoners and detainees who escaped by breaking into jails/correctional homes and police custody cells are the main security challenges.

Similarly, the Congress and the UML are suspecting the legitimacy of the electoral government formed on the basis of the Gen-G rebellion and the impartiality of its work. In the past, the activities of the parties in power and the risk of clashes/encounters between the parties supporting the Gen-G rebellion have also been considered as security challenges.