Local-level election: Nepal Police demands Rs 9 billion to purchase vehicles

KATHMANDU, Feb 1: With the consensus reached among the ruling alliance to hold the local level election in Jestha (May/ June), preparation for the election is gradually speeding up. 

The home administration and security bodies, however, call for the announcement of the date for the election prior to the security preparations.

Nepal Police has demanded the purchase of new vehicles to be mobilized during the election period.

According to the Inspector General of Nepal Police, Sailesh Thapa, Nepal Police has asked for Rs 9 billion for the purchase of new vehicles.

“It would be difficult to maintain security by mobilizing the old vehicles of Nepal Police during the election if no new vehicles are purchased and mobilized,” said a high-level police officer.

It has been estimated that the Election Commission requires as much as Rs 12 billion to conduct the election in all the 753 local bodies in the country which will be the most expensive election in the history of Nepal.

Besides, it has been apparent that the security expenses during the election in Nepal usually cost double that of a poll body. In this case, the security cost alone will be around Rs 25 billion.

“In the local level election held in 2074 BS, the expenses of the poll body was Rs 8.11 billion.

The election this time is estimated to be more than 30 percent more expensive than the previous election due to COVID-19 pandemic and inflation,” said Shaligram Sharma Poudel, spokesperson for the election commission.   

As per the criteria of the poll body, there will be one election center for 1000 voters. After the local level election held five years ago, as many as 2,000,000 voters have been added which means 2,000 more voting centers are required to be added this time.

The election commission deploys one election officer and eight to ten employees in one voting center.

The government needs to establish an election office at every local level. In this case, there will be 753 election offices,753 election officers and around 21,000 voting centers with around 10 employees. 

The officers at the election commission maintain that earlier the election, earlier to manage resources and less the cost.