It has been proposed to recruit 1.25 lakh temporary police officers for the security of the House of Representatives elections. The Police Headquarters has prepared a preliminary outline with a proposal to recruit at least 115,000 temporary police officers for the elections scheduled for 21 Falgun.

According to the blueprint, if they are recruited temporarily, it is estimated that they will have to spend more than 4 billion rupees on training, salary, allowances, uniforms, etc.

The Police Headquarters has stated that the security strategy has been formulated based on the security management of the 2079 general election.

With the upcoming elections in mind, an integrated task force on election security has been formed under the leadership of the Assistant Lieutenant General of the Nepal Army, comprising officers from the Police, Armed Police Force and the National Investigation Department. Similarly, the Ministry of Home Affairs has also formed a separate task force on election security under the coordination of Joint Secretary Ananda Kafle. The Ministry of Home Affairs will further study the election security blueprint of the security body formed by the committee led by the Assistant Lieutenant General of the Army and submit it to the Central Security Committee after finalizing it. After that, preparations are underway to finalize the election security plan in coordination with the Election Commission.

The Army, Police and Armed Forces have also started joint security patrols across the country. Just last week, Army Chief Ashok Raj Sigdel called Inspector General of Police Chandrakuber Khapung, Inspector General of Armed Police Raju Aryal and Chief of National Investigation Department Tekendra Karki to the army headquarters to review the security situation. After that, Army Chief Sigdel met Prime Minister Sushila Karki and informed her about the upcoming election security plan.

There are about 100,000 security personnel working in the army, about 80,000 in the Nepal Police and about 37,000 in the armed forces. If we look at past practices, more than 80 percent of the manpower from all three security agencies, excluding regular, essential and office security purposes, has been deployed for election security. The manpower that is insufficient is being recruited as temporary police.

The government is also engaged in election discussions and preparations with the Election Commission and security agencies. The security agencies are forced to prepare for election security by facing the situation created after Bhadra 24 as the main security challenge. During the protests on Bhadra 24, government/public and private property was vandalized, arsonized, and looted, while 14,043 prisoners in police custody during criminal investigations and 28 prisons and juvenile correctional homes across the country escaped.

More than 1,200 weapons belonging to the police alone were looted. Of these, about 400 weapons have not yet been recovered. About 5,000 prisoners have also yet to be returned to prison. More than 450 police offices and barracks, which are responsible for regular peacekeeping, crime investigation and control, and working in harmony with society, and 62 armed forces barracks were damaged in the vandalism and arson on Bhadra 24. Of the damaged ones, the police have temporarily repaired and painted about 400 barracks and offices and are operating. Police officials say that it is difficult to streamline security management due to the lack of management of offices damaged by vandalism and arson.

The government deployed about 550,000 security personnel and employees in the 2079 House of Representatives and Provincial Assembly elections. Of these, about 300,000 were security personnel and 250,000 were employees. At that time, the Election Commission had designated 10,892 polling stations and 22,227 polling stations. In addition, 141 additional temporary polling stations were designated for prisoners, employees, security personnel and voters in old age homes. Of these, 3,080 were designated as highly sensitive, 4,420 as sensitive and 3,391 as less sensitive polling stations.