CEC visiting India to receive information about Electronic Voting Machine

KATHMANDU: Chief Election Commissioner Neel Kantha Upreti has left for India Thursday afternoon to get ‘first-hand knowledge of electronic voting machines’.

Before flying to Delhi, Upreti met interim election commission chairman Khil Raj Remi and informed him about his visit and the preparations being made by the EC for the polls.

Informing that 139 political parties are registered with the EC, Upreti said the main purpose of his visit will be to learn whether the EVMs developed by an Indian company will be work efficient given the sheer number of election symbols.

Uprety said he has learnt about an Indian company that has developed EVMs that can handle over 300 parties and during his trip he will try to learn whether those machines will be appropriate for Nepal.

Meanwhile, the EC has decided to carry out mock polls in 16 districts in the mountain, hill and Terai districts from June 16 to check the effectiveness of these machines. A meeting of the EC board on Wednesday decided to hold the mock polls. The government announced the date for holding the election of the constituent assembly today itself.