Foolproof Poll Security

blog

Nepal has achieved another milestone in crucial democratic exercise by successfully conducting the three-tier elections this year. Local polls were held in May and federal and provincial elections on November 20. The country has placed ample emphasis on organising polls in a free, fair and credible manner, strengthening the democratic institutions as well as earning people’s faith in them. However, holding the polls peacefully by encouraging public participation is not an easy task. It is fraught with several intended and unintended challenges. All concerned stakeholders should join hands to conduct the elections without any major hindrance. The Election Commission, the government, political parties, security agencies, media and the civil society should work in tandem to make elections successful. If they fail to coordinate with each other, the political and security troubles may emerge to spoil the poll atmosphere. 

Reliable security stands as top agenda for fair election. A foolproof security arrangement is essential to take the voters into confidence. The threat of violence and disruption dissuades the people from visiting the polling centres. In the recent polls, we have seen all relevant state apparatuses actively contributing to make the voting process fair and peaceful. For this to happen, the security agencies have worked day and night to ensure that no untoward events mar the polls. Except for a few cases of violence, the local, and federal/provincial polls were held successfully in respective single phase as there was effective law and order and the parties and the people enthusiastically participated in the elections. The credit for this mainly goes to the security organs – Nepal Police, Armed Police Force (APF) Nepal, Nepali Army and National Investigation Department, which demonstrated their professional competence to provide robust election security. 

However, as per a news report of this daily, Nepal Police has been facing a shortage of logistics of small arms and weapons, and proper communication sets and vehicles.  Nepal Police had to rely on around 2,200 small arms to provide security during the elections. It failed to get budget in time to make necessary security arrangements. A Central Election Security Cell involving the representatives of all security wings was formed to implement Integrated Election Security Plan-2079 unveiled by the Home Ministry. The security agencies did not confront big security challenges because they effectively monitored and controlled potential violent incidents before, during and after the elections. They have been keeping an eye on the activity of the anti-poll underground outfits and gathered all information about them. This helped the security bodies to control some underground groups hell-bent on disrupting the polls. 

Some parties detonated explosives and created bomb scare to the people but acting on the advance intelligence reports about the disruptive plans, the security personnel had prevented the untoward incidents to take place. The underground outfits tend to join the mainstream politics after their disruptive activities fail to make an impact in the masses. They initiate negotiation with the successive governments to shed their hostile activities. Now they pose no big security challenge during the polls which was evident in these recent elections. For example, CK Raut, who heads Janamat Party, finally participated in the polls after years of disruptive political campaign and he has won election with significant number of votes. This particular case shows that the government should make every effort to bring the dissident groups into mainstream politics so that potential security threat is nipped in the bud.

How did you feel after reading this news?

More from Author

Civil Service Bill On The Anvil

Who’s Afraid Of Price Controls?

Amateur Sadbhav takes sole lead after third round

Applications for Miss Nepal open

Focus On Job Creation