The Election Commission has asked the Ministry of Finance for a budget of Rs 8.952 billion for holding the local level election scheduled for May 13. The Commission has written to the Ministry of Finance to release the budget. Issuing a statement on Tuesday, EC Spokesperson Saligram Sharma Poudel said that a letter has been sent to the Ministry of Finance as per the EC’s decision.
The amount of the budget demanded this time is more by about Rs.810 million than the budget spent in the previous local polls, Poudel informed.
Rs. 8.14 billion was spent in the local level elections of 2017.
“The election expenses will increase this time due to inflation rate, addition of about 3.8 million voters, salary increment of the employees, increase in the number of ballot papers and election materials and additional budget for COVID-19 management,” the release stated. The Commission has informed that 100 per cent election facility would be provided to the government employees deployed in the election arlier, 121 per cent of the total salary received by the employees was provided as election facilities, the EC informed.
Similarly, arrangements have been made to deploy the staff working in the offices within the concerned local levels, the Commission said.
The Commission further stated that around Rs. 806 million was spent on voter education in the last election.
This time, only Rs 241.7 million has been proposed for the same, according to the Commission.
Similarly, the Election Commission has decided to issue circular to all local levels asking not to charge cost to those seeking recommendation from the ward office to obtain copy of the voter’s identity card in case they have lost or destroyed their ID card.
The EC said that a copy of the voter’s identity card can be obtained by submitting an application to the concerned district election office by March 4, on the recommendation of its ward office.
Source : TRN,
