Kathmandu, Dec 6 (RSS): The preparations for the House of Representatives and State Assembly elections have been completed in the Kathmandu District which has the largest number of electoral constituencies and voters in the country.
Ramesh Raj Pokharel, the chief election officer of Kathmandu constituency-1, said that preparations for the voting have been completed at all the 10 constituencies in Kathmandu district. Pokharel is also coordinating the election preparations in all the constituencies in Kathmandu.
“All the necessary preparations except some technical matters have been completed for the elections at all the 10 constituencies in Kathmandu. The technical preparations too would be completed by the evening today,” he said.
According to Pokharel, works on transporting ballot papers to the polling booths is underway. The ballot papers have been given since Tuesday to the election officers of the polling stations who can ensure their safety while the Election Commission will transport them to the remaining polling centres by the evening today.
The Election Commission has assigned 5,848 employees including one chief election officer each at all the 10 electoral constituencies in the Kathmandu district. Among the employees deputed on election duty, 355 are of the under-secretary level, 731 are of the section officer level, 376 are of the non-gazetted first class officer level, 2924 are of the assistant level and 1,462 are of the office helper level.
There are 731 polling booths and 309 polling centres in the 10 election constituencies in Kathmandu district. One hundred and seventy one candidates are in the race for the House of Representatives elections from the 10 constituencies. Similarly, 107 candidates are contesting in the State Assembly election from constituency (A) and 115 from constituency (B) in Kathmandu.
There are 630,460 voters in the 10 electoral constituencies in Kathmandu.
The Election Commission has also put a mobile security team on ready position for the security of the polling stations.
CCTV and wire mesh at vote counting centres
Meanwhile, the Election Commission has made preparation for installing CCTV cameras and wire mesh at the places in all the 10 electoral constituencies where the counting of votes will take place.
“These measures are being adopted in view of the security of the vote counting places. CCTV cameras will be installed and wire mesh fencing constructed at the vote counting places,” Kathmandu’s Chief Election Officer Pokharel said.
He said international observers will also be there at the vote counting places.
According to him, the counting of votes of constituencies 1, 2, 3 and 4 will be done at the City Hall; that of constituencies 5 and 7 at the Department of Cooperatives Development training centre at Baneshwar and that of constituencies 9 and 10 at the International Convention Centre, Baneshwar.
Likewise, the counting of votes of constituency 8 will be done at the Forestry Complex Babarmahal and that of constituency 6 at the District Coordination Committee office at Babarmahal, it is stated.