Kathmandu, July 27

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya has said the Policy Study Foundation has moved ahead home work regarding the type of election in the country in the coming days.

CEC Thapaliya said so in a programme of discussions on the performance and the Annual Report of the Election Commission held at the House of Representatives, State Affairs and Good Governance Committee today. He said home work would be done on making the existing election system frugal and effective rather than changing the election system itself.

In the meeting, the Committee members had suggested on starting debate on options as the present costly election system is having adverse impact on the democracy and the political norms and values. The Election Commission has said preparations are being made to hold discussions with the political parties for integrating the scattered election-related laws and for making the election code of conduct more objective and practical. The Commission drew the attention of the Committee on the need of an effective mechanism for strict abidance to the election code of conduct during the silent period in the context of the trend of election publicity campaigns being intensified by using the social media during this period. Similarly, the Election Commission suggested that it would be practical to make arrangements for counting of votes at the polling station itself and for making the election cost-effective.

It also stressed on the need of promoting the notion that elections are to be won by values and principles and not by spending a lot of money. Before this, the Committee members had stressed on giving the right to the Election Commission itself for announcing the date for periodic election in order to enable it to function in an independent and autonomous manner.

They also reiterated that it has become incumbent to seek alternatives to the present election system in practice for making it less costly.