KATHMANDU, May 5: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has announced that it will monitor the upcoming local level elections slated for May 13.
Speaking at a press meet organized by the NHRC in view of the upcoming local polls, the NHRC Chairman Tapa Bahadur Magar said that the election procedures would be monitored through the human rights perspectives. For this purpose, a high-level monitoring team will be mobilized in each province.
The monitoring will cover both pre and post-election atmospheres.
NHRC to monitor human rights situation during local polls
According to the NHRC Commissioner Dr Surya Dhungel, his team will be in the Madhesh Province, Commissioner Mihir Thakur's team will reach the Gandaki Province and the team led by another Commissioner Manoj Duwadi will be mobilized in Sudur Paschim Province. Similarly, another team led by Commissioner Lily Thapa will visit Province 1 for the monitoring purpose.
Prior to this, the NHRC teams had reached 30 districts for the observation of election nomination registration procedures from April 24 to 25.
The NHRC’s 47 teams will monitor human rights situations reaching voting booths in 77 districts. The NHRC Central Office will also set up the monitoring control room for monitoring the situations, according to NHRC Chairman Magar.
The NHRC shall monitor whether the senior citizens, people observing death rituals, pregnant women and disabled persons have easy access to voting. Security management, mobilization and management of security at the voting booths, voter education, the use of children in election publicity, compliance of the election code of conduct and the possible violence during the election campaigning will also be monitored in the course of monitoring works.
The monitoring will also be carried out from the perspective of the protection and promotion of human rights in terms of impartiality of the election, its confidentiality, women participation, management of food and accommodation for security personnel and employees deputed on election duty, security arrangement of the vote counting station, use of information procedure related to the vote counting and presence of security personnel and election observer organizations at the vote counting station. Among other things, the NHRC said it will also monitor if the victory rally is peaceful and whether political parties created obstruction in the activities of other political parties.
Chairman Magar said that monitoring carried out prior to the election showed that the government has made adequate preparations to ensure peace and security and the election officers have organized all-party meetings. Similarly, political parties are found to have committed to abiding by the election code of conduct. The nomination process was found to have been conducted in a peaceful and enthusiastic manner except for a few cases of sporadic incidents and disputes.
(RSS)
