Kaski Election Office Prioritizes Voter Education Ahead of Upcoming Polls

Kaski. The Election Office in Kaski has given high priority to conducting voter education programs.

Rudra Neupane, Information Officer at the Provincial Election Office Pokhara, stated that the voter education program has been underway since Falgun 3 to teach voters how to cast their ballots correctly for the upcoming House of Representatives election on Falgun 21.

According to him, the voter education program, conducted through voter education volunteers using a sample ballot paper, will continue until Falgun 17 in all 72 wards across five municipalities to minimize spoiled votes.

In the 2079 BS election, five percent of votes were invalidated in Kaski. The Election Office reported that out of 178,008 votes cast for the House of Representatives, 170,344 were valid and 8,464 were invalid.

Votes are typically invalidated due to reasons such as stamping in the wrong place on the ballot paper, folding the ballot paper incorrectly, or stamping outside the election symbol area.

Information Officer Neupane said, "Looking at past elections, the percentage of invalid votes here is quite high. The Election Office is emphasizing voter education to prevent vote invalidation. The education program is running in all wards. We are teaching people how to cast votes based on a sample ballot paper."

In Kaski, which has three constituencies for the House of Representatives, 2,190 personnel have been deployed for the election. The Office of the Chief Election Officer announced that appointment letters for these personnel were distributed on Friday and will be distributed tomorrow, Saturday.

Kaski has 153 polling stations and 363 polling centers. Including two temporary polling centers, a total of 365 polling centers will have 2,190 personnel deployed.

Furthermore, the presiding officer has the provision to appoint three volunteers for each polling center on election day.

According to the Election Office, a polling center has been designated at the prison for inmates. Additionally, employees not assigned to polling duties will cast their proportional votes at the polling center located at the District Coordination Committee office.

In the district, 49 candidates, including 44 men and five women, from 18 different political parties and independents are in the running.

The total number of voters is 308,572. In the 2079 BS election, there were 291,568 registered voters.