The Election Commission (EC) has notified that it will register voters till Nov 21. The date has been extended in response to a request from Prime Minister Sushila Karki in view of the heavy turnout of voters for registration. Despite the two-shift registration of voters, long queues for registration may be due to the apathy of the EC at the time of annual updating of voter list by including eligible voters seriously on the one hand and the apathy among the voters toward registration, on the other.
It is worth mentioning here that previously for a citizen to get his name registered in the voter list he had to submit only his citizenship certificate, which was provided by the District Administration Office and that was done at the village level itself. The introduction of the new system of giving biometric data at the District Election Office (DEO) for registration has discouraged many eligible voters. A majority of the voters, who are out of their native places for jobs, education and other purposes, do not prefer to visit the DEO to register themselves by visiting the DEO, which means a certain disruption in their daily schedule.
Sadly, a citizen has to visit the district headquarters three times, first, for obtaining citizenship certificate, then for voter registration and lastly for getting the National Identity Card. Interestingly, if biometric data are obtained at the time of issuing the citizenship certificate, a citizen has no need to visit the district headquarters time and again.
If the government introduces a law to address this issue, it will reduce the government expenses by at least 66 percent by curtailing unnecessary staff engaged in this task. At the time, the citizens will get some relief as they won’t have to undertake a strenuous journey to the district headquarters, especially in the hilly and high mountain religions.
Like many other countries, there are two types of migrant voters in Nepal. First, those who are migrant workers working outside the country. Their number is anticipated to be 5-6m leaving apart about 2m voters living in India. The second type of voters are internal migrants whose number is also believed to be about 1-1.5m.
A significant number of such voters include those who are registered but are unable to vote at the fixed place, date and time. The data show that out of a 30m population only 18.2m voters are registered and with the latest addition it will reach 18.5m. Interestingly, out of 18.2m voters, hardly 12.5m voters cast their votes and about 0.6m of these votes become invalid. Most of the internal migrant voters do not cast their votes, explaining, in part, the poor turnout of voters. Since the EC has agreed to use biometric data from the National Certificate issuing office for registering the names, there is heavy rush of voters for registration.
Given this context, I humbly suggest some changes for increasing voting participation of GenZ and migrant workers abroad.
The EC has been authorized to hold polling in several phases (as per Clause 6.3 of the HoR Election Act, 2017). It entails that it can advance partial voting as well, as per practice of several countries. It is called ‘advance voting’, ‘absent voting’and ‘external voting, etc. If the EC decides, it can keep voting days open from the date symbols are distributed to the candidates, at least two days ahead of voting day (March 5) for those migrant workers who happen to be in the country during these 15 days, i.e, during the campaign period. The migrant workers won’t have to wait for March 5 to cast their votes. Even if it facilitates a few, that will create history for a democratic Nepal.
More significantly, it will facilitate those GenZ, who are in Kathmandu and other places inside the country in thousands, for their studies and all other purposes, together with the general voters who cannot vote in their home constituency being far away for different purposes. They can also cast their votes for their home constituencies.
Those allowed to vote for the proportional representation (PR) segment have really been reduced to a status of 40 percent voters. If they can vote for their home constituency also, they will be 100 percent voters, as PR is meant for choosing a party and not the individual candidate.
The PR segment is for ensuring 33 percent representation of women in the House of Representatives. Thus, it has become a women’s representation segment. This will also help those officials and staff engaged in voting management far away from their home constituencies.
This may revolutionize the voting pattern of the country. Of course, the EC has to get the ballot papers printed within a week by not depending solely on the Janak Educational Material Centre but also on other governmental and private printing presses by adhering to usual security measures.
The author is former election commissioner
