Submit your Article

The Election Commission (EC) has clarified that it has decided to prepare ballot papers in the forthcoming local level election by putting details with a green election symbol on a white background as it is voter and enumerator friendly. 

Asked about the colour of ballot papers and election symbols, Spokesperson of the Commission Shaligram Sharma Poudel said that ballot papers with green, black, blue and red symbols have been used in the last few elections.

The commission has decided to put the green election symbol, green line and green number on the white paper with the intention of making the counting of votes easier and the sign on the ballot paper clear.

According to the commission, ballot papers with green, blue, red and black election symbols are being practised in the previous election as well. 

In a regular press conference held on Monday, the commission had decided to print the symbol, details and security mark on the ballot paper in green ink while printing the required ballot papers for the local level election to be held on 13 May.

Earlier on Tuesday, the main oppostion CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli had expressed his dissatisfaction over the Election Commission's decision to print green ballot paper for the upcoming local level elections. RSS

Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki and US Ambassador to Nepal Randy W. Berry held a meeting on Wednesday.

During the meeting held at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the duo discussed issues of mutual interest and implementation of Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).

On the occasion, Minister Karki thanked Ambassador Berry and the US government for the implementation of the $500 million grant compact.

Ambassador Berry inquired about the implementation of the MCC after it was endorsed from the Parliament.

Minister Karki said that Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has been taking efforts to implement the MCC.

Berry said that the US government will continue to support economic prosperity of Nepal, the Ministry of Communications said.

Pakistan’s Opposition parties on Tuesday submitted a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan, seeking to remove him from office after holding his government responsible for the uncontrolled inflation, The Hindu reported.

The motion document, which was signed by about 100 lawmakers from the Pakistan Muslims League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), was submitted with the National Assembly Secretariat, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said.

As per rules, signatures of at least 68 Members of Parliament were required to force the Speaker to summon a session, which should be convened between three to seven days to conduct a vote on a no-confidence motion.

In the house of 342, the opposition needed the support of 172 members of the National Assembly to remove the Prime Minister and his cabinet.

PM Khan, 69, is heading a coalition government and he can be removed if some of the partners decide to switch sides, which is not unusual in parliamentary democracies, according The Hindu.

Opposition parties blame PM Khan’s government for uncontrolled inflation that has broken the back of poor people of the country, while Khan accuses them of trying to remove as he was not willing to condone the alleged corruption by the leading opposition leaders.

PM Imran Khan, a former cricketer, came to power in 2018 and elections are to be held in 2023 if he succeeded to ward off the challenge of no-trust move, The Hindu reported.

He had promised to clean the country of corruption and create a new Pakistan.

Last year in March, the premier had voluntarily sought a trust vote following an upset in Senate elections. In a show of strength, he had secured 178 votes – six more than required – to win the vote of confidence from the National Assembly, the Dawn website reported.

Corpses lie in the streets of Mariupol. Hungry people break into stores in search of food and melt snow for water. Thousands huddle in basements, trembling at the sound of Russian shells pounding this strategic port city, Associated Press reported.

“Why shouldn’t I cry?” Goma Janna demanded as she wept by the light of an oil lamp below ground, surrounded by women and children. “I want my home, I want my job. I’m so sad about people and about the city, the children.”

A humanitarian crisis is unfolding in this encircled city of 430,000, and Tuesday brought no relief: An attempt to evacuate civilians and deliver badly needed food, water and medicine through a designated safe corridor failed, with Ukrainian officials saying Russian forces had fired on the convoy before it reached the city.

Nearly two weeks into the invasion, the Russians have advanced deep along Ukraine’s coastline in what could establish a land bridge to Crimea, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014. Mariupol, which sits on the Azov Sea, has been surrounded by Russian soldiers for days, according to the Associated Press.

Mariupol, said Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, is in a “catastrophic situation.”

In other developments in the Russian invasion:

— Poland offered to give all of its MiG-29 fighter jets to the U.S., apparently agreeing to an arrangement that would allow them to be used by Ukraine’s military. But Pentagon press secretary John Kirby later said the plan is not “tenable” and raises serious concerns for the NATO alliance. He said the U.S. would discuss it further with Poland.

U.N. officials said that 2 million people have now fled Ukraine.

— Russia’s economic isolation deepened as U.S. President Joe Biden announced a ban on Russian oil imports and Shell said it will no longer buy oil and natural gas from the country. Also, Adidas and McDonald’s said they are suspending their operations in Russia.

For days, as Moscow’s forces have laid siege to Ukrainian cities, attempts to create corridors to safely evacuate civilians have stumbled amid continuing fighting and objections to the proposed routes. Ukraine has rejected Moscow’s offers of corridors that lead civilians to Russia or its ally Belarus, Associated Press reported.

The Russian military has denied firing on convoys and charged that the Ukrainian side is blocking evacuation efforts.

One evacuation did appear successful Tuesday, with Vereshchuk saying that 5,000 civilians, including 1,700 foreign students, had been brought out via a safe corridor from Sumy, an embattled northeastern city of a quarter-million people where overnight strikes killed 21, including two children, according to the Associated Press.