According to Election Commissioner Ila Sharma, a meeting of the constitutional body on Tuesday took the decision to this effect. The EC will use EVMs at electoral constituency no 2 of Rolpa, constituency no 1 of Kaski and constituency no 1 of Kathmandu district in the fresh CA polls. [break]
Similarly, the constitutional body has decided to use EVMs in 116 electoral constituencies of Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Saptari, Siraha, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, Bara, Parsa, Rautahat, Rupandehi, Nawalparasi, Kapilvastu, Chitwan, Banke, Bardiya, Dang, Kailali and Kanchanpur districts.
EC officials have mentioned multiple reasons behind using EVMs in a majority of electoral constituencies across the Tarai region.
“Those electoral constituencies which are sensitive from the security point of view have been given priority,” said an EC official on condition of anonymity, adding, “Also, electoral constituencies that had large number of invalid votes cast during the previous CA polls have also been given priority.”
Similarly, the constitutional body has decided to use EVMs in a majority of electoral constituencies across Tarai districts because there are a large number of voters and they are literate.
The EC officials said that despite the constitutional body´s willingness to use EVMs in all the electoral constituencies, this is not possible due to technical limitation.
Multiple Sources at the EC said that the EVMs are likely to be bought from India. The Indian government had provided EVMs during the previous CA elections held in 2008.
According to EC Spokesperson Bir Bahadur Rai, the constitutional body had used EVMs in constituency no 1 of Kaski, constituency no 1 of Kathmandu, constituency no 5 of Dhanusha, constituency no 2 of Ropla, constituency no 4 of Kanchanpur and constituency no 5 and 7 of Morang in the previous CA election.
Meanwhile, altogether 79 political parties have applied for registration at EC till Tuesday to participate in the upcoming elections. The deadline for registration of parties at EC is expiring on Thursday.
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