The Election Commission (EC) is set to start a fresh voters’ list updating process from mid-July for the provincial and federal elections. 

The voters’ list updating process has been halted since February 20 after the government announced the date of the local elections.

As per the Electoral Roles Act, that the voters’ list updating process should be stopped once the election date is announced.

Although the local elections are yet to be held in Province 2, the election body said that the newly-added voters through fresh process would not be able to participate in the third phase of local elections, which are scheduled to be held on September 18.

“The planned voters’ list updating process is for provincial elections and national parliamentary elections,” said Election Commissioner Ishwari Prasad Paudel. “Only those who had been listed until February 20 will be able to vote in the local elections in Province 2.”

A total of 14,054,482 citizens were listed as eligible to vote in the local level elections. Of them, 4,956,927 voters were eligible to cast vote in the first phase of polls held on May 14 and 6,432,765 were eligible to vote for the second phase of elections held on June 28.

EC officials said that they decided to start collecting a fresh voters’ list to enable those who are eligible to vote after February 20 to exercise their franchise.  

The election body will not have much time for voters’ list collection, considering that it has proposed holding elections of the Provincial Parliament in the second week of October, polls for National Assembly in the last week of October and the elections for House of Representatives in the third week of November. 

“The voters’ list update process may last for just two weeks until July-end,” said Paudel. “We are not planning to reach every village and town by mobilising teams because of time constraints and monsoon. But we will tell the District Election Offices to do whatever they can.” 

The EC’s failure to reach towns and villages may deprive many eligible voters to exercise their franchise in the upcoming elections. However, the EC officials pointed to their compulsion for holding three tiers of elections by January 21, 2018.

The election body has also proposed amending the Electoral Roles Act to enable the election body to determine the deadline of updating the voters’ list. Such a provision is expected to open door for the EC to prolong the voters’ list updating process even after the announcement of election dates. 

The amendment proposal on the matter has been sent to the Law Ministry for its opinion, according Joint Secretary at the Home Ministry Nirmala Bhattarai Adhikari.