Preparations Intensify in Gandaki Province Ahead of House of Representatives Elections

Gandaki. With only 8 days remaining until election day, preparations for the House of Representatives election in Gandaki Province have been accelerated. Efforts to finalize security and other management arrangements have been intensified.

The Provincial Election Office, Pokhara, stated that election materials, including ballot papers, have reached all 11 districts of the province. Rudranath Neupane, the Information Officer at the office, said that the respective District Election Offices and the Chief Election Officer's Offices are engaged in the final preparations for the election.

He added that the management and deployment of polling officers, assistant polling officers, and other staff who will be assigned to conduct the voting process are currently underway. Training for polling officers and assistant polling officers has already been completed in some districts, while preparations to commence training in others are ongoing.

Yagya Prasad Rijal, Chief of the District Election Office, Baglung, stated that the training will be conducted on Wednesday and Thursday. Following the training, staff will reach their respective polling stations on Falgun 18, he mentioned. More than 14,000 personnel will be deployed for the election in Gandaki.

“Around 90 percent of the preparations for the election in Baglung have been completed,” he said, adding, “Now, preparations will focus on the polling stations.” Voter education is currently being conducted by deploying one volunteer to every ward in the province. The Election Commission provides voter education with the objective of reducing invalid votes by teaching the correct method of voting.

Security arrangements have been tightened to ensure the election is peaceful and free from fear. As election day approaches, an integrated election security plan has been implemented in every district to ensure no lapses in security. Chitrangat Baral, Assistant Chief District Officer of Kaski, stated that all four security agencies have been mobilized for election security.

The respective District Security Committee has classified polling stations as highly sensitive, sensitive, and normal, preparing necessary strategies based on security analysis. “Regular monitoring of polling stations is being carried out, and security arrangements at the polling stations have been made tight and effective based on security analysis,” he said. Assistant CDO Baral stated that personnel from the Nepali Army, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force, and National Investigation Department have been deployed for election security.

According to the integrated election security plan, the Nepal Police will be deployed for the inner perimeter security of the polling stations. Nepal Police, along with election police, will be deployed in the first layer of the security cordon. It has been reported that the Armed Police Force will be in the second layer of security, and the Nepali Army will provide security from the outer layer of the security cordon.

Gandaki Province has 1,297 polling stations and 2,396 polling centers. The number of voters is 1,870,065. In the House of Representatives election in BS 2079 in Gandaki, there were 1,662,246 voters. In the current election, 207,819 new voters have been added. There are 18 House of Representatives constituencies here.