Election to be monitored virtually

The election of local level members, which will be held across Nepal on April 13, will be monitored from Kathmandu via video technology.

With only 54 days left until the local election, the Election Commission has stated that the storage of ballot boxes and the counting of votes will be monitored from their own premises after the completion of the polling.

 For this purpose, the Election Commission has decided to use the vote counting and vote management system (VCVMS).

However, the management of the VCVMS has to be done by the concerned local level. The ownership of the system will also remain at the local level.

The Election Commission has requested the local level to provide commitment to connect the system. All local levels have been informed about this through the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration.

In order to make the election clean, free, fair and credible, VCVMS is being installed at every polling station using local level resources to maintain internet connectivity between the polling station and the Election Commission.

The Election Commission has also sent a list of materials required to connect the hardware and the software required for such operations to all the local levels. Based on this, election expenses are expected to increase.

Internet access is still lacking in most parts of Nepal. Even in places where the internet is available now, there are complaints of slow speed from time to time. Although the Election Commission's monitoring of the counting of votes will make it easier for them to understand the situation there, it is not easy to assess how reliable the technology will be.

In consultation with the Election Commission, the Government of Nepal aims to hold the election of local level members in a single phase. Voting is scheduled for 7:00 am to 5:00 pm on Election Day.

Although security personnel, including temporary police, will be deployed in Nepal for the election, the officials believe that the monitoring through technology will help in conducting the election in a peaceful and fraud-free manner.

There is a need to learn from the past elections in Nepal and make improvements to give priority to making the election results public as soon as possible. In the general election, the media has been making the results public sooner than the commission.

People from different parties have stressed on the need for the commission to take initiative to make the election results public as soon as possible.