The Election Commission, which has been readjusting the address of voters in Province 2 after nine new local units were created, has estimated that around 1.8 million voter identity cards need to be reprinted.

There are a total of 2,664,000 voters in the province where the local elections are scheduled to be held on September 18 in the third phase, after completion of the polls in the other six provinces on May 14 and June 28. The ID cards were already printed during the earlier preparations. “Addition of local units as well as elevation of some including the Birgunj Sub-metropolis into a metropolis and a change in the wards of many local units forced us to reprint ID cards along with the changed addresses,” said EC Spokesman Surya Sharma.

While adding nine local units to the existing 127, the border of around 90 local units was changed. If one or two wards are removed from a local unit, the address of the entire area needs to be changed. For example, if Ward 1 is removed from one local unit, another ward has to be named Ward 1 and eventually other wards also need to be renamed, said Sharma.

The election body said it was working to complete the process as soon as possible but it has been time consuming because of the change of address of voters in about two thirds of the local units. The EC plans to distribute the ID cards three days ahead of the vote once polling officers reach polling centres.

On May 22, the government announced 23 new local units and upgraded two sub-metropolitan cities into metropolises in 12 Tarai districts. As many as 24 rural municipalities were made municipalities. When the decision was challenged in the Supreme Court, the SC on May 26 stayed the decision through an interim order.

On August 10, the court cleared the way for increasing the local units only in Province 2 arguing that the elections had taken place elsewhere.

Election offices set up

Election offices have been established in Siraha for the upcoming phase of local level elections. Information Officer Uttam Bhattarai said 17 election offices were established in the district. There are nine rural municipalities and eight municipalities in Siraha. The offices also published the poll schedule. There are 331, 596 voters in the district.