MRPs BEING DISTRIBUTED FROM 36 DISTRICTS OUTSIDE VALLEY FROM SUNDAY

MRPs BEING DISTRIBUTED FROM 36 DISTRCTS OUTSIDE VALLEY FROM SUNDAY
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Kathmandu, 17 July: Machine readable passports or MRPs are being distributed from 36 districts outside the Valley from Sunday.
MRPs are also being distributed from district headquarters in Lamjung, Syangjha, Tanahu, Gorkha, Banke, Bardiya, Dailekh, Surkhetm Humla, Dolpo, Jajarkot, Bajura, Bhajang, Darchula, Baitadi, Kailali, Kanchapnur, Doti, Accham, and Daldeldhura.
Residents of Morang, Sunsari, Saptari, Tehrathum, Dhankuta, Bhojpur, Khotang, Okhaldhunga, Sanhkhuwasabha, Bara, Parsa, Rautahat, Mustang, Baglung, Parbat, Myagdi, Kaski and Manang can collect MRPs from district headquarters.
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DRAMATIC FALL IN NUMBER OF REGISTERED VOTERS SO FAR
Kathmandu, 17 July: The Election Commission (EC) is struggling to register voters, having totted up only 54 percent as yet of the number it had registered during the 2008 CA elections in its multi-million rupee voter registration programme, Bhadra Sharma reports in The Kathmandu Post reports.

With the number of those registered in the multi-phase voter registration campaign with biometric details and photos accounting for less than 50 percent of those who registered for the 2008 Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, officials are struggling to make sense of such a dramatic decline in numbers.

For the 2008 elections EC had registered 17.6 million voters, but current figures stand at 8.5 million.

The steep drop in total registration, that requires citizenship, raises serious questions about the actual number of voters. The total number of those coming of age, in theory, should have increased the number of voters, say EC officials. Officials had hoped they would be able to register at least 12 million eligible voters by mid July—the initial deadline for voter registration.

“EC started the voter registration process to replace the past election roll, which we thought had both duplication and exclusion of voters,” EC Spokesman Sharada Prasad Trital said.

EC had targeted to complete the overall registration process before mid-July, 2011. In 58 of the 75 districts the process has completed, while registration in eight districts will be completed by mid-August. Voter registration in Banke, Kapilvastu and in some VDCs in Jhapa and Morang has been stalled following opposition from Madhes based political parties. They have been demanding that voters be re-registered based on the past electoral roll but not citizenship certificates.

Following a Supreme Court verdict in February 2011, EC has not registered anyone who cannot produce citizenship certificate.

Some Madhes based political parties claim that the number of voters to be registered under the new system decreased in the absence of citizenship certificates. They said most Madhesi citizens are deprived of citizenship. Interestingly, around 230,000 citizenship certificates were distributed countrywide before the CA elections by introducing Citizenship Act-2006. The Act says a person born in Nepal before 1990 is a citizen if three Nepali citizens vouch for her or him.

Among the 12 million expected voters that EC had hoped to register in this campaign, it is estimated that around 3 million Nepalis have legally left the country for employment in other countries besides India. The registration process for those living outside Nepal is expected to commence soon.

Acting Chief Election Commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety said the Commission has no bad intention except holding the election in a free and fair manner. “Although the deadline for the formal program came to an end, we have not closed the registration programme,” said Uprety. “The remaining eligible voters are most welcome at District Election Office.”

However, some observers involved in the voter registration process said that a large number of citizens have been deprived of registration both in the absence of non-cooperation of political parties, lack of citizenship certificates and accessibility issues. The Carter Center, during its observation of the process voter registration process “has found that two main challenges have had considerable impact on registration turnout to date. First, political obstruction prevented the Election Commission from conducting registration in parts of the Terai and eastern Hills,” said the Center in its report after an observation of 40 districts.
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