National
SC ruling ‘forced’ EC to buy additional 100 tons of paper
The Election Commission (EC) says it had to buy an additional 100 tons of paper to print ballots after the Supreme Court (SC) ordered it to make arrangements for separate ballot papers for federal and provincial elections under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system.The Election Commission (EC) says it had to buy an additional 100 tons of paper to print ballots after the Supreme Court (SC) ordered it to make arrangements for separate ballot papers for federal and provincial elections under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system.
Before the SC order on October 25, the EC was planning to print the FPTP ballot for both the elections on a single sheet. EC had estimated 14.7 million ballot papers for both the elections. But with the SC’s decision, the requirement for paper increased.
“We have already bought the paper required for printing the ballots. Printing will start soon,” said Nawaraj Dhakal, spokesperson for the EC.
The EC however is yet to dispatch the paper to Janak Shiksha Samagri Kendra (JSSK) which is printing the ballot papers.
The current stock at JSSK will last until mid-November, according to sources.
According to the EC, it has already printed 7.5 million ballot papers under the FPTP system for the 32 districts where elections will be held in the first phase on November 26 as well as for another eight districts where elections will be held in the second phase on December 7.
The EC had stared printing separate ballot papers for two elections on a single sheet from October 27, but printing was halted the next day, three days after the SC ruling that came in response to a contempt of court writ against election officials. On October 29, the EC decided to print separate ballot papers and.
Limited voter education materials
The Election Commission (EC) says it has been able to print model ballot papers only for the voters’ education purpose because of limited time available to mobilise volunteers.
The EC is planning to mobilise volunteers from November 11 and these model ballot papers will be made available to them. Although it had to print other materials including brochures, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), handbooks and some posters for voters’ education, the EC said it may not print all of these due to time constraint.
“We will take decision about printing them based on necessity,” said EC Spokesperson Nawaraj Dhakal. The election body said that it had already spent around Rs 100 million to print voters’ education materials. But they were wasted following the Supreme Court ruling that the EC make arrangements for separate FPTP ballot papers for the federal and provincial elections.