At a time when the government is saying that there is conducive environment for municipal polls, Chief District Officers (CDOs) of 10 districts in the mid and far-western regions have said it would not be possible to conduct municipal polls with the present level of security forces, reports said.
The CDOs said this during a high-level meeting held in Nepalgunj on Thursday. Home Minister Kamal Thapa, Chiefs of the mid and far western divisional headquarters of the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA), regional and zonal chiefs of the Armed Police Force (APF) and Nepal Police and the Home Secretary participated in the meeting, Kantipur Daily reported.
Minister Thapa reached Nepalgunj on Thursday with the Police and APF chiefs and the Home Secretary to enquire about the security and political situation in these regions. Minister Thapa held separate meetings with CDOs from each region during which the CDOs demanded additional security, the report adds.
“They did not say that conducting elections is impossible. But they said that they would go to every household and request participation and would need to mobilize heavy security,” the paper quoted a reliable source as saying.
Security officials said the election would need to be conducted by dividing areas into normal, sensitive and very sensitive categories and by providing security accordingly.
At the meeting, Home Secretary Bal Krishna Prasai said that the elections would be conducted at any cost, adding, “The international community is watching. This is a matter of our international image,” the source quoted Prasai as saying.
Minister Thapa said that since the elections are being held in difficult circumstances, the government sees it as a challenge and it is moving ahead according to the king’s roadmap.
The government is holding municipal polls on February 8 next year saying security situation of the country has been gradually improved following the February 1 royal takeover despite the call of major opposition parties to boycott it and the Maoist threat to disrupt it at any cost.