The Election Commission, the government, and political parties are engaged in the February 21 House of Representatives elections.

All political parties are busy selecting candidates for the 165 seats of the House of Representatives directly as per the Election Commission's schedule. Some parties have already finalized their candidates for the direct elections, while some are in the final stages. The Commission has set the deadline for candidate nomination registration for tomorrow.

The parties have already submitted the closed list of candidates for the 110 seats in the proportional elections to the Election Commission on 13 and 14 Mangsir.

After the dispute that was seen in the recently dissolved first party in the House of Representatives, the Nepali Congress, led by President Gagan Thapa, has also started selecting candidates after the Election Commission officially recognized the Selection Working Committee through a special general convention.

The Election Commission has already printed the ballot papers, established the election office and appointed the Chief/Returning Officer. The Commission has also finalized the voters, polling stations and polling stations and sent the list to each district.

The government has also been engaged in election-focused security management and mobilizing human resources accordingly. About 200,000 people have applied for the recruitment of about 150,000 election police officers for election security. The selection of election police officers has been initiated from today. The Election Commission has also issued a code of conduct from today.

A selection committee formed under the coordination of the Assistant Chief District Officer of the concerned district will recruit election police officers in the prescribed quota in all 77 districts. The Central Security Committee has also held provincial security seminars in all seven provinces to ensure that the elections are conducted in a fair, fearless and peaceful manner. Nepal Police has also transferred a large number of security officers focusing on election security.

Ananda Kafle, spokesperson for the Ministry of Home Affairs, says that the suggestions received from the security seminars held in all seven provinces have guided the election security management and human resources mobilization and the security strategy has been decided accordingly. In the upcoming elections, 58 parties are participating in the proportional representation and 114 in the direct representation. More than 19 million voters will be able to vote in the elections.

The commission has already held discussions with Prime Minister Sushila Karki, Home Minister Om Prakash Aryal and the heads of security agencies regarding the elections. On Sunday, the commission discussed the election preparations and management with Prime Minister Karki.

‘The commission had already started its preparations after the election date was announced. Gradually, all efforts have been focused on the elections and now we have found that the entire country is in the election mode,’ says Narayan Prasad Bhattarai of the commission. ‘The parties have submitted the closed list for the proportional representation, we have also found that the work of selecting candidates for the direct representation is underway, and it seems that the common citizen is eager to vote for the party/person of their choice,’ said spokesperson Bhattarai. ‘The government is also active in the election security management, which has made the entire country in the election mode.’

After the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned from his post on the strength of the Gen-G youth-led movement on 23 and 24 Bhadra demanding good governance, an interim government was formed under the leadership of former Chief Justice Sushila Karki. On 27 Bhadra, the day he became the interim Prime Minister, Karki recommended the dissolution of the House of Representatives, and President Ram Chandra Poudel announced the election date for 21 Falgun.

Although the Congress and UML initially criticized the dissolution of the parliament, the UML elected the party leadership and working committee through a general convention. Amid the controversy over whether to hold a general convention before the election, Thapa was elected as the president of the Congress through a special general convention led by Congress general secretaries Gagan Thapa and Bishwaprakash Sharma. Against this, the party of outgoing Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba had approached the Election Commission. The commission on Friday gave official recognition to the new working committee led by Thapa. The Deuba side has also approached the Supreme Court against the decision. The Supreme Court is yet to decide on it.

4,500 polling stations are highly sensitive

The Election Commission has already designated 11,901 polling stations for the House of Representatives elections. From a security perspective, the Central Security Committee meeting has classified these into three categories: highly sensitive, sensitive and normal polling stations, and has arranged security management accordingly.

According to the security blueprint submitted to the Election Commission by the Central Security Committee, out of the 11,901 polling stations designated for the 21 Falgun elections, about one-third have been included in the highly sensitive list. Similarly, 4,442 polling stations have been designated as sensitive and 2,845 as normal polling stations due to security challenges.

According to sources, 278 polling stations have been placed on the general list in the Kathmandu Valley. 237 sensitive and 12 polling stations have been classified as highly sensitive. In Koshi, 647 polling stations have been included in the general, 237 sensitive and 12 highly sensitive list. In Madhesh, 159 general, 755 sensitive and 1246 highly sensitive list have been placed, while in Bagmati (excluding the valley) 437 general, 497 sensitive and 1288 highly sensitive list have been placed.

In Gandaki, 392 general, 577 sensitive and 328 highly sensitive, in Lumbini 471 general, 738 sensitive and 358 highly sensitive, in Karnali 161 general, 422 sensitive and 358 highly sensitive and in Sudurpaschim 300 general, 394 sensitive and 481 polling stations have been placed in the highly sensitive list.

Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and Nepal Army will be deployed to secure polling stations classified according to security challenges. A total of 149,090 election police personnel, including those under the police and armed forces, are also being deployed for security deployment. A police official said that the Central Security Committee has made some amendments to the classification of polling stations based on the feedback received from all seven provinces after conducting security seminars.

Security personnel are being deployed based on various indicators of challenges in election security. An election-focused security seminar was held in Lumbini Province on 9 Mangsir in coordination with the Ministry of Home Affairs and concluded in Madhesh Province on 30 Poush.

Starting from Lumbini, security conferences were held in Sudurpaschim on 16 Mangsir, Gandaki on 29 Mangsir, Karnali on 9 Poush, Koshi on 16 Poush, Bagmati on 25 Poush and Madhesh on 30 Poush to discuss election security preparations, challenges and strategies.

In particular, the government has identified the changed situation after the Gen-G movement, including the struggle for existence and competition between Gen-G supporters, new and old parties, activities of groups that can boycott and obstruct the elections, inadequacy of vehicles and weapons/ammunition in the security agencies, low manpower in the security agencies, open borders and the risks that may arise from them, and misuse of social media as the main challenges. Since Nepal-India is an open border area, considering the risks created by it as the main challenge, polling stations in the border area from Jhapa to Kanchanpur have been included in the high-risk category. Nepal has an open border of about 1,880 km on the Indian side and a controlled border of 1,414 km on the Chinese side.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has stated that the preparations being made by the provincial and district security committees through their respective mechanisms, the strategies to be used to deal with problems and potential challenges, and the management of human resources and resources have been discussed at the security seminar. The government has stated that all preparations have been made for election security and management as per the ‘Integrated Election Security and Management Plan-2082’. According to the security action plan, security deployment is being made by keeping the challenges before and after voting different.

Level-based mechanism from center to district

The Ministry of Home Affairs has established a level-based mechanism from center to district to manage and coordinate the security of the upcoming election. In addition, the Nepali Army has also made election-focused preparations through its various units from center to district level. The Ministry of Home Affairs has activated a level-based mechanism to coordinate with local administration and security mechanisms at the center, provinces and districts. A central mechanism has been formed under the leadership of Home Minister Om Prakash Aryal to coordinate election management and security. The mechanism, including the chiefs of all four security agencies, the police, the armed forces and the investigation department, and the senior generals of the army, is the highest mechanism for security management and coordination.

A central command post has been formed under the coordination of the Home Secretary, and a central joint election cell has also been formed under the coordination of the Head of the Security and Coordination Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs. At the provincial level, the provincial command post and election cell coordinated by the provincial chief secretary will be activated. The work will be done by the District Security Committee under the leadership of the Chief District Officer in the district.

Cyber ​​police to monitor digital media

A police cyber crime control team is also being deployed to control cyber crime and misuse of social media during the election. The Ministry of Home Affairs has stated that this mechanism is being mobilized to prevent the misuse of digital platforms and the spread of rumors.

‘Cyber ​​police is being mobilized to control unfounded information, rumors and misleading propaganda, cyber crime, hacking, fake accounts and digital fraud and to ensure voter privacy, digital security and a peaceful election process,’ said Home Affairs Spokesperson Anand Kafle. According to him, election cyber police personnel will be deployed from the Cyber ​​Bureau at the Valley Police Office to coordinate with the Central Command Post, Election Commission, and Central Election Cell.

According to him, cyber police will also be deployed in each provincial police office and district police office. The cyber police have been mandated to monitor, analyze, direct, recommend, and investigate election-related cyber activities.