Election means of exercising and establishing people’s sovereign right: CEC Thapaliya

Kathmandu: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya has described the election as the means of exercising the citizen’s sovereign rights and political rights granted by the Constitution.

He said the election is the indispensable part of the democracy through which the citizens will choose their representatives through a ballot. 

In his address to a programme entitled ‘orientation on election reporting’ organised by the National News Agency (RSS) at its central office on Tuesday in view of the upcoming elections of the members in the House of Representatives and Province Assembly announced for November 20 in a single phase, CEC Thapaliya said, “election grants people the right to be a voter, to cast the ballot, to choose their representatives, to be part of in the election race and to get elected as well.” 

He was of the opinion of taking the election as the beginning of the next phase for the implementation of the Constitution and federalism.

The Chief Election Commissioner sought a credible, vibrant and meaningful role of media to ensure that the voting would take place in an impartial, fearless and transparent way, expecting more contribution from the RSS to make the election a grand success.

According to him, voter fraud is a very serious issue in democracy and it must be prevented, seeking the role of RSS to avoid its possibility in each democratic election.  He wished that the RSS remaining as the ‘ information bank’ could paint a real picture of each incident in the nations and of the given time lively.

Terming the RSS as an institution with a living history, he said, “The public still believes that the RSS services are credible and authentic. The mass feeling that the RSS is the synonym to credible services is still alive.”  The organisation has been a long witness to the issues of democracy, human rights, development endeavours and elections in the nation and archiving such historic phenomena.

He took time to urge the RSS management to expand its access to the entire 165 electoral constituencies for the coverage of election-related issues.  

He urged the RSS to explore probable difficulties and discomforts that voters are likely to face to access the polling centres and booths so that it would correct them on time.

Hinting at the possibility of the misuse of media during the election, he urged media personnel to avoid election-related mis/ disinformation, and hate speech and contribute to discouraging and preventing them. 

He urged journalists not to be judgmental and not to assume the circumstances while reporting the incident.

lated issues.