Reacting to the concerns expressed by the United Nations (UN), human rights groups and educational bodies, the Election Commission (EC) on Sunday said it would not remove the polling stations from schools.

EC spokesman Tejmuni Bajracharya said that the polling booths set up in schools around the country for the upcoming municipal elections would not be removed under any circumstance. “The polling stations already set up in schools will remain there. The EC is not going to remove them just because of such concerns,” he told Nepalnews.

The EC had recently decided to establish polling stations in public schools in 58 municipalities where voting is going to take place on February 8.

Saying that setting up polling stations in schools would hamper the educational environment and that even violent incidents could take place in the context of the CPN (Maoist) publicly declaring to disrupt the polls, the UN Systems based in Kathmandu had on Thursday asked the EC not to establish polling booths in schools.

When asked about the growing number of withdrawal of candidacies, the EC spokesman said that votes cast to the election symbols of members who have announced withdrawal after registration would be considered valid and certificate of election would be provided to the candidates on that basis.

More than 650 candidates have decided to back out from their candidacies.