As soon as the government announced the date for the local elections, the Election Commission stopped the voter list update process. With the inclusion of an additional 200,000 youth, the total number of voters on May 12 will be 17.9 million, reports The Rising Nepal.

The ECN has decided to make the day before the upcoming local elections as the cut-off date for the young voters to complete their 18 years of age in order to make them eligible for voting the next day.

The decision shows Nepali citizen completing 18 years of age on May 12 can vote in the local level elections slated for the next day, May 13, 2022.

A Nepali citizen can obtain citizenship certificate after completing 16 years of age but voting right could be exercised only after completing 18 years.

According to the ECN, this provision is being implemented for the first time in Nepal’s election history.

There were 15.42 million voters in the elections in 2017 while on 20 December 2020; the number of voters had reached 16.24 million.

“The ECN wants to ensure the voting right of every Nepali completing 18-year age. The voters’ registration process is stopped as per the legal provision of not continuing it after the announcement of the date for the polls,” Spokesperson of the ECN Shaligram Sharma Poudel said.

EC Vote

To push the process of elections, EC is preparing to begin registration of the political parties for the local level election slated for May 13. As per the 68-point election schedules approved by the EC, the political party registration program will take place from February 17-26.

According to the working procedure of the EC, the political parties which are already registered in the commission also need to register them for the election purpose.

As per the existing laws, political parties should register them in the Election Commission for election purposes.

As per the legal provision, if a registered party wants to participate in the election, it will have to submit the application along with the required documents within the time limit specified by the commission.

Shedding light on the reason behind the re-registration of the political parties for election purposes, EC Spokesperson Shaligram Sharma Poudel said, “The number of parties registered with the commission is more than 100. Not all of them are required to participate in the election.”

“The registered political parties should also be given election symbols. It is also required to understand whether the political parties are up to date,” he said.

After the political parties apply for registration, the commission will set a time limit of one week for investigation, said Poudel, adding, “The time limit will be from Feb 28 to March 6.”