The Election Commission, Nepal, in a stride to enhance outreach among the voters and citizens, has recently launched two new knowledge products, a Code of conduct for the Commission’s officials and staff, and three new polices in a virtual event. The Chief Election Commissioner, Honourable Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, and Election Commissioners, Honourable Ishwori Prasad Paudyal; Ram Prasad Bhandari; Dr. Janaki Kumari Tuladhar; and Sagun Shumsher J.B. Rana launched these materials.

The Secretary of the Election Commission, Suresh Adhikari provided an overview of the materials launched. The two knowledge products that were launched include: Election History of Nepal Vol 2, which is a repertoire of knowledge about past elections, and Election Question and Answer Book, which contains 680 questions and answers on matters pertaining to elections. These resources can be used for anyone seeking to learn about elections, including those in the academia, policy makers, development practitioners.

Furthermore, three policies that were launched at the event include: Social Media Policy for Election Management to strengthen the Commission’s two-way communication with the voters, whilst ensuring accurate and factual information. The Gender and Inclusion Policy in Election Management was also launched, and responds to the Constitution’s call for a gender and socially inclusive institution as well as elections. The Human Resources Policy for Election Management which was launched, aims to capacitate and professionalize human resource to ultimately contribute to credible elections. The  Social Media and Human Resources policy have been  prepared for the first time for the ECN; and the Gender Inclusion policy has been updated from 2013 as per the new Constitution, electoral laws and lesson learnt from 2017 elections  All of these are available on the Commission’s website here.

In addition, the Secretary of ECN informed in the event that two more polices, Civic Engagement Policy, 2078 B.S and Electoral and Voter Education Policy, 2078 B.S are being finalized by the Commission and will be available for public soon.

The event was addressed by the Chief Election Commissioner, who emphasized that the Commission is pleased to launched these important knowledge products and policies, to reach all citizens. He elaborated that the documents were formulated in coordination and cooperation with the stakeholders, and sought the same support in their implementation.

The event had over 100 participants, including high-level dignitaries from Government Counterparts and Commissions, development partners like European Union, JICA, USAID and IFES, media and other electoral stakeholders.

During the event, the Election Commission recognized the valuable technical assistance from UNDP’s Electoral Support Project in the formulation of the knowledge products and policies. UNDP has been providing technical assistance to the Election Commission through the Electoral Support Project since 2008.