At a meeting with top officials of the Election Commission (EC), the secretaries of the Home and Defense Ministries and the chiefs of the Nepal Police, Armed Police Force (APF), Nepal Army (NA) and the National Investigation Department (NID) briefed the EC officials on the status of the integrated security plan for the November poll. [break]
“The chiefs of all four security agencies told us that the integrated security plan for the CA poll is yet to be given final shape and it will take another seven to 10 days,” Chief Election Commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety told Republica.
According to Uprety, the security agency chiefs assured him that they will be able to provide necessary security for holding the November poll. “We are fully committed to providing necessary security for the election,” Uprety quoted the security chiefs as saying at the meeting.
According to sources present at the meeting, the EC officials urged the security agency chiefs to come up with the security plan for the polls as soon as possible.
The security agencies have divided the election constituencies into three categories--highly sensitive, sensitive and normal -- from the security point of view.
“We are yet to finalize which election constituencies will fall under which category,” a police source said on condition of anonymity, adding, “We will do so only after the EC finalizes the number of polling booths.”
He stated that some districts of the Tarai and some of eastern districts are highly sensitive from the security viewpoint.
Election Commissioner Ila Sharma said the election commission is very happy with the preparations being made by the security agencies for the forthcoming election.
Asked if the government would come up with an election security plan that would include the use of temporary security personnel, Sharma said, “The EC will take a decision on whether or not to use temporary security personnel.”
Chief Election Commissioner Uprety, for his part, said they have been stating repeatedly that temporary security should not be used for election security. “We are sticking to that,” Uprety added.
The EC had invited the top security officials and the Home and Defense Ministry secretaries in order to enquire about the status of the integrated security plan for the November poll. The four security agencies and Ministries of Home and Defense are responsible for security during the election.
The election commission has already made public its election program for both the proportional representation and first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral systems.
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