Government officials participate in mock poll exercise for local body elections in Nepal

Kathmandu [Nepal], May 7 (ANI): Ahead of local level elections in Nepal, the Election Commission on Saturday organized a mock election for officers demonstrating the ways to conduct the election scheduled on May 13.
Dozens of election officers participated in the electoral process in the country.
"There were some confusions but this mock election has resolved all those. At the time of the election, we also can assist the voters while exercising their franchise to make each and every vote cast to be valid or counted," Sabitra Sharma, one of the government employees to be deployed at the time of election told ANI.
Under various rankings, several Government officials including secretaries and under-secretaries have been deployed by the Election Commission assigning polling stations to conduct the polls.
A three-day workshop about the smooth commencement of election at various booths was organized by Election Commission on Thursday to appraise the officials about possible problems as well as undertaking that need to be carried out on polling day.
"I would not be able to claim any number but I speculate that the portion of vote annulation might increase this time. Major is the absence of voter education, political parties also aren't that serious about their role in appraising the voters, size of the boxes in the ballot papers also should have made a little bit large so that swastika sign which is large in comparison would not have touched the edges making the casted vote count. The swastika sign also is a bit big increasing the risk of annulment of the vote," Jagdish Aryal, an official from Nepal's Home Ministry assigned at a polling centre in Kathmandu said after taking part in the demonstration.
A total of 152,465 candidates had filed their nominations for May 13 local level election for various 35,221 posts in 753 local units. Many rebel candidates have withdrawn their candidacies. Independent candidates have also filed candidacies, according to the Election Commission.
As many as 12,789 independent candidates are contesting for various posts in the upcoming May 13 local level elections.
The Election Commission has set up a total of 10,756 polling stations and 21,955 polling booths for the elections. Accordingly, the government has categorized 2,946 polling stations as highly sensitive, 4,423 as sensitive and 3,387 as less sensitive.
A total of 168,000 security personnel from various security agencies of Nepal are going to be mobilized to ensure security during the upcoming May 13 local level elections. (ANI)