Kathmandu, March 25
The National Election Observation Committee says although the EC has successfully conducted polls at all levels of government, there are several areas in which the poll body needs to improve its performance.
Members of the committee, who presented their final report to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli at a programme in Kathmandu on Sunday, said that the election commission could not effectively implement its code of conduct, especially on social media. Similarly, it took a lot of time to declare the results, didn’t educate the voters on the polling process and spent more that required during the process. The committee also said that the government’s choice of date for elections was not suitable for voters.
Himalaya Shamsher Rana, the chief of the committee, said that the commission should be allowed to choose the date for elections in the future. “Parliament should give the Election Commission the right to declare elections. That way, the commission can get enough time to prepare for the polls,” he added. Rana said that the elections took place at a time when voters in the mountains could not easily come to the polling stations because of the weather.
The committee’s general secretary Gopal Shiwakoti alleged that state-owned media could not play an independent role during the elections. He said that the the Election Commission failed to implement its code of conduct on social media.
Despite all the shortcomings, the commission managed to conduct the elections in a peaceful environment, says the report. It says that the people responded positively to the government’s security arrangement to go to the polling stations to vote, despite threats from groups that boycotted the elections.
