10 women members nominated to NC CWC
The Nepali Congress has nominated ten women to the party's Central Working Committee. Prime Minister and party president Sher Bahadur Deuba today nominated Kiran Yadav (Mahottari), Radha Ghale (Kathmandu), Dhana Khatiwada (Lalitpur), Urmila Thapaliya (Dhading), Rukmini Koirala (Morang), Kalyani Rijal (Kathmandu), Goma Bhattarai (Jhapa), Ganga Shahi (Rupandehi), Laxmi Khatiwada (Sunsari) and Sita Devkota (Nawalpur) as the members of the Central Working Committee of the party. Deuba nominated them as the Central Working Committee members in accordance with the party statute, Nepali Congress Chief Secretary Krishna Prasad Poudel said.
Ruling coalition decides to send Citizenship Bill as it is to President’s office for authentication
The ruling coalition has decided to send the Citizenship Bill without making any changes again to the President’s office for authentication. A meeting of the ruling coalition held at the Prime Minister’s office in Baluwatar on Tuesday decided to send the Citizenship Bill to the President’s Office by completing all the parliamentary process for authentication. Government spokesperson Gyanendra Bahadur Karki said that the meeting has decided to send the Citizenship Bill as it is to the President’s office. Earlier, President Bidya Devi Bhandari had sent the Citizenship Bill back to the Parliament for reconsideration. On July 31, Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota had sent the Citizenship Bill to the President’s office for certification.
EC intensifies preparations to hold November 20 elections in free, fair manner
The Election Commission (EC) has intensified preparations in order to hold the November 20 elections of the provincial and federal parliaments in a free and fair manner. In this connection, it endorsed the election schedule. The directive, work procedure and amendments relating to the elections have also been approved. Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya said that the EC had called for registration of the political parties willing to participate in the elections and completed the financial management work procedure and budget. The EC has been provided 107 days for the preparations. It has estimated the election cost at Rs 10 billion while the total voters would be around 18.2 million. Even the international organizations have been called for election observation in order to hold the elections in a free, fair and frugal manner. It is shared that there will be some 10,825 polling stations. CCTV surveillance will be put in place for making the vote count credible. It will be helpful for monitoring of the elections and vote count as well. The citizens turning 18 years on the eve of the elections are eligible to exercise voting rights. For voting literacy, digital media is used extensively by the Election Commission. There is continuous discussion and consultation with the experts and political representatives in a bid to minimize the percentage of invalid votes and increase voters' turnout. Moreover, the EC has also planned to ensure voting rights to the employees and security persons mobilized for the elections and the inmates by including them in the temporary voter list. With this, they can at least vote for proportional elections. Efforts are on to discourage prodigal election publicity. Another nagging issue the EC is facing and taking efforts to address is the spread of fake news. The EC believes that fake news- disinformation and misinformation- pollutes the electoral information system. Equal attention has been drawn towards the promotion of honest politics. The candidates will be urged to make self-disclosure on their qualification and financial issues.
Bamdev Gautam to contest upcoming election with Maoist Center’s election symbol
Nepal Communist Party Ekata Rastriya Abhiyan Coordinator Bamdev Gautam has decided to contest the upcoming election with the election symbol of the CPN (Maoist Center). A Standing Committee meeting of the CPN (Maoist Center) held on Tuesday has decided to allow Gautam to contest the election with the party’s election symbol. Maoist Center spokesperson Krishna Bahadur Mahara said that the meeting has given permission to Gautam to contest the forthcoming election with the party’s election symbol. The government has decided to hold the federal and provincial elections on November 20.