Four international organisations to observe Nepal’s upcoming elections

Kathmandhu, Dec 15 Nepal’s Election Commission (EC) has permitted four international organisations and 26 domestic organisations to monitor the parliamentary elections scheduled for March 5 next year.

The Carter Center of Atlanta, the United States; ANFREL (Asian Network for Free Elections); the Multidisciplinary Institute of Training and Learning, Massachusetts, the United States; and the International Republican Institute have received approval to observe the elections, the EC said in a statement on Monday.

Domestic civil society organisations have also been granted permission to conduct election monitoring.

Nepal has a history of inviting international election observers for federal and provincial elections, while international observers are not invited to monitor local elections.

The Carter Center and ANFREL have long been involved in monitoring Nepal’s elections. However, the Carter Center did not observe Nepal’s 2022 elections, although it had observed the polls in 2008, 2013 and 2017. For the upcoming elections, the EC had invited applications from interested international observers on October 28.

To be eligible for accreditation to observe Nepal’s elections, organisations are required to provide evidence of experience in the fields of good governance, elections, democracy, peacebuilding and human rights.

Institutions must also have submitted observation reports to the Election Commission in a timely manner if they observed previous elections. Additionally, observer organisations must not have been punished or convicted for violations of human rights, the election code of conduct, or Nepali laws, according to criteria set by the EC.

Meanwhile, the Nepali government has decided to form a high-level political dialogue committee to hold talks with various political parties and stakeholders amid complaints from the political parties about the government's attitude. They have complaints that the government was not serious about maintaining law and order to create a conducive environment for the polls.

A cabinet meeting on Monday decided to form the high-level political dialogue committee under the coordination of Law Minister Anil Sinha.

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