The recruitment process has been moved forward with a 40-day work period, and services and facilities will be provided on a par with those of a soldier.
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The personnel recruited for election security will now be named 'Election Police'. Such personnel recruited under the Nepal Police were previously called 'Field Police'.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has decided to give the identity of the Election Police to the manpower being recruited for the security of the upcoming House of Representatives elections, informed the Ministry's spokesperson Anand Kafle. 'The process has been taken forward to name the Election Police instead of the temporary police and recruit them with a 40-day work period,' he said. 'The name is not everything, but having the Election Police instead of the temporary police creates a kind of belonging, and it also reflects the identity of the work for which they are deployed.'
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the draft of the 'Election Police Recruitment, Selection, Appointment and Mobilization Standards-2082' is being prepared by the Police Headquarters. The Election Police will be deployed under the police, counting the period of work from the selection until the results of the vote are announced. The security personnel deployed in this way will be paid according to the basic salary scale received by the police constable, and the constable will be given ration allowance according to the scale received by the police in the respective district. As per the practice adopted in the past, they will also be given clothing allowance and vehicle allowance while traveling.
The temporary police officers deployed in the 2079 House of Representatives elections were given a salary of Rs 34,760 per day at a rate of Rs 869 per day for a period of 40 days. Rs 7,200 was given for ration and in the case of Himalayan districts, the amount was as per the minimum ration rate of the district. An additional Rs 6,000 was provided for the purchase of prescribed clothes and jackets, Rs 1,000 for transportation expenses, and Rs 300 per day for three days for lunch.
The government is preparing to recruit about 130,000 election police officers for the upcoming elections. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, 115,000 temporary police officers were recruited for the security of the 2079 House of Representatives and Provincial Assembly member elections. About 100,000 temporary police officers were recruited in the local level elections held in the same year. Before that, about 98,000 were recruited in the 2074 House of Representatives and Provincial Assembly member elections, 75,000 in the same year's local level elections, and 45,000 temporary police officers were recruited in the second Constituent Assembly elections held in Mangshir.
The practice of deploying temporary security personnel in elections is old. Nawaraj Subedi, a politician who held public positions including the chairman of the National Panchayat (similar to the current Speaker) and a minister during the Panchayat period, says that the practice of deploying temporary police for election security has been around since long. ‘Since there was a shortage of manpower in election security only from the police and army that were in power, the practice of recruiting temporary police for a specified period of time was there during the Panchayat period, and this was continued in the elections after 2048,’ says Subedi, who is also a former minister. ‘Especially, former army/police, former labourers who had been recruited in various countries and worked were given priority in recruiting temporary police.’
Former army, police and people who had been recruited in foreign countries and retired have been given priority in temporary police recruitment. In the 2079 election, it was arranged that Nepali citizens who had reached the age of 18 and not exceeded the age of 54 could apply for temporary police. Among them, priority was given to temporary recruitment of those who had received gratuities and pensions from the army, police, and armed police, former forest guards, citizens who had applied for permanent recruitment in security agencies and passed the physical fitness test, and those who had participated in past elections and performed satisfactorily. This will be the basis for recruitment this time as well, informed an official at the Police Headquarters.
Former Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Thapaliya says that temporary police were recruited and deployed for election security in both the Panchayat and multi-party systems, and this practice continues. ‘Even during the Panchayat period, temporary police were recruited when elections were held, and this continued during the multi-party period as well,’ says Thapaliya. ‘On the one hand, this allowed the youth to serve the country even if it was for a fixed period, and on the other hand, they also received certain service facilities for working during this period. In both respects, the recruitment of temporary police in elections can be viewed positively.’
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, preparations are underway to deploy 3.25 lakh security personnel for the upcoming election security. It has been decided to mobilize about 79,000 Nepali Army personnel, about 72,000 police personnel, and 33,000 Armed Police Force personnel. This has been approved by the Central Security Committee and the National Security Council. Under the ‘Integrated Security Plan-2082’, the Army, Police, Armed Police Force, National Investigation Department, and Election Police will be mobilized.
President Ram Chandra Poudel has approved the mobilization of the army for election security on Thursday alone, on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers. The Army Headquarters is preparing to deploy the army in the field for election security from the last week of Mangsir. According to the Election Commission, more than 800,000 new voters have been added in the upcoming election compared to Mangsir 2079.
Keeping the new voters in mind, the Commission has made changes to the previous polling stations and added 168 polling stations. Now, with this, 10,967 polling stations have been established across the country. With the cancellation of 93 polling stations out of the ones established earlier, the increased polling stations come to 75. Home Ministry officials say that the number of election police will also increase compared to the past based on the additional polling stations and security risks/challenges, and a security action plan has been prepared accordingly.
In the last House of Representatives election, 18.168 million 230 voters were registered. This time, 837,092 new voters have been added, taking the number of voters to 19.05 million 322. It has been decided to mobilize the security mechanism based on the number of voters, the classification of polling stations as highly sensitive, sensitive and normal in terms of security challenges, the security situation of the district and area, and the activities of various groups.
