KATHMANDU, Nov 16: ‘Mero Pratinidhi’, a digital website has officially announced the release of their youth-led initiative www.meropratinidhi.com with the aim of bridging the huge political information gap and developing a well-informed voting culture in Nepal.
According to the information portal, each candidate profile on the website consists of the most relevant data on a given candidate such as their basic information, education level, political history, vision, action plans, and further links to any relevant information. Voters can search their candidates by name or province/district/election constituency. Voters can also filter candidates by gender/age/political party. Besides this, they can compare information between any two candidates by using the Compare tool and make a solid voting decision. The website is accessible in both Nepali and English languages. The website database is continuously being updated every day as data comes in from multiple sources.
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The website features a continuously updating database of all Nepali politicians, starting with the 5600+ profiles of candidates of the Nov 20 general election 2079.
The Election Commission in Nepal releases the candidate list only a few weeks prior to the election. According to Mero Pratinidhi, this makes it difficult for voters to acquire key, reliable data needed to make an informed voting decision. Information on popular politicians is plentiful and accessible across different channels. However, information on newer and lesser-known candidates is not widely available.
Having faced this issue first-hand during the local election in Nepal in Baisakh 2079, the founders of Mero Pratinidhi conceived the idea of a centralized, standardized database of politicians. Considering the exponentially increasing internet adoption, this team is investing in this digital tool to bridge the political information gap in Nepal. Beyond the Nov 20 election 2079, Mero Pratinidhi aspires to grow this platform into an extensive, comprehensive collection of information on all politicians and political parties.
Mero Pratinidhi’s core team consists of six members including Abbal Dhakal, Ajay Yadav, Gaurav Jung Pande, Aditi Singh, Kailash Yadav, and Srijan Sthapit. The larger executive team comprises independent young leaders (District Ambassadors) across 19 districts that are mobilizing approximately 90 volunteers for candidate outreach and data collection.
