EC to deliver temporary voter’s ID before CA election

KATHMANDU: Election Commission is making preparations to provide temporary voter’s identity card for the upcoming Constituent Assembly elections.
Chief Election Commissioner Ayodhi Prasad Yadav said that the commission is preparing to print the identity cards through support from the United Nations Development Project while speaking at an interaction program organized by the Reporters Club Nepal in the capital on Friday.
Elaborating on the causes for not providing permanent identity cards with bio-metric data, he said that such cards could not be prepared due to lack of legal provisions on voter user data.
“Presently we don’t have laws that govern the usage of personal data used on the voters ID card,” said Yadav adding that the process for procuring an agency to prepare such cards is still to be finalized.
Responding to queries on the preparations for holding CA elections, he said that the Commission has finalized the recruitment and training of human resources, and prepared all necessary materials including ballot papers.
On a different note, the Commissioner termed the CPN Maoist and its allies decision to boycott election as ‘unfortunate’ and added that the CA elections will be held despite their denial to participate in the elections.
“Which parties are contending elections, who have filed their candidacy does not matters now. We have come far ahead to think about that,” Yadav said calling all political parties for ‘respecting the rights of Nepali citizens to vote”.
He said that the most important prerequisite for holding elections in peace is to implement code of conduct and urged all political parties to abide by it.
Yadav warned to take actions television channels and media houses if they flaunted the CA election code of conduct by broadcasting advertisement of political parties and candidates.