In 2008, during the constituent assembly polls, Nepal successfully observed the pilot test of electronic voting machines in Kathmandu. 14 years later, Nepal traditionally conducted its local elections using complicated ballot papers and counting done within wire fences. Is this a setback for the digital transformation of Nepal?
On May 13, 2022, Nepal has held its second local level elections since federalization. Voting was completed in 752 local levels on May 13, with polling in one municipality being postponed to May 17. The local elections allowed Nepalis to cast their vote to fill 35,221 local legislative and executive seats from around 145,010 candidates.
The Election Commission printed around 20 million ballot papers, for which the country spent NPR 110 million on paper supply, and the Commission had sought over NPR 8.9 billion with the Ministry of Finance to hold the local elections in a single phase.
Issues in the Local Election
In the recent local elections, voter engagement was not as strong as projected; voter turnout was over 64% on average, against 73.8% in the previous local elections. In Kathmandu, just around 50% of voters cast ballots. Moreover, despite a 2018 Supreme Court ruling, around 4 million Nepalis residing abroad were not allowed to vote since there was no voting by mail.
In addition, invalid votes were a major cause of concern in the Nepali local elections. In the last local elections in 2017, around 17% of votes were invalid, and in the parliamentary elections, more than 14% of the votes were invalid. Voting in the recent local elections was particularly more confusing because the multi-party system and coalitions have made casting votes confusing and complicated. Elderly, handicapped, and illiterate people find it difficult to cast their votes on the paper ballot, eliminating many of their votes. In fact, at some voting centers of Kathmandu, as high as 40% of ballots were rejected.
Although the election was largely peacefully conducted, voting in 79 polling centers was halted, and voting was postponed in 28 municipalities of 16 districts following disputes among political parties causing clashes and tensions. Voting in all these polls were conducted later. Moreover, to people’s surprise, some people seized the polling stations, tore up the remaining ballot papers, and ran away with the ballot boxes in two polling stations in Rautahat after a riot had broken out.
Vote counting is another cause of concern during the election process as it has been extremely sluggish. Vote counting on many local levels started the day of the local election, May 13. However, as of May 27, vote counting is still ongoing. The Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City was announced on May 26, almost two weeks after the election was held. The tenure of the local representatives elected in the previous local elections expired on May 19, which means that since vote counting of the current local elections was not concluded by May 18, many local levels remained without any representative for almost a week.
Advantages of Electronic Voting
Countries are increasingly shifting to electronic voting as a solution to the problems stated above – to increase accessibility, decrease voter fraud, and increase efficiency. Elections are the building blocks of a democracy, and even more so in countries with an unstable political environment. The process of voting plays an important role in conducting a fair election, wherein the preferences of voters translate into effective policymaking. Therefore, more and more developing countries, like India, the Philippines, and Nigeria, are adopting electronic voting.
India and Nepal share a lot of similarities in terms of infrastructural gaps, household composition, illiteracy rate, corruption, and social norms – all of which impact elections and the voting procedures. Like Nepal, India also has a complex multi-party system and perpetual cases of electoral fraud. Therefore, in the late 90s, to simplify the voting procedure and limit election fraud, the Election Commission of India introduced Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), which could register only five votes per minute. This meant that polls had to be captured for a longer time to rig the election, which was costly and difficult. Similarly, the Philippines, after introducing EVMs in 2016, saw 81% voter turnout and broke its record for the fastest voting count as the machines immediately tracked and published the election results online. Since Nepal shares similar context and issues as these counties, Nepal should draw learnings from these countries and adopt EVMs to address some of the concerns in the recent and past elections.
Electronic Voting Machines in Nepal
Electronic voting was used in Nepal for the first time in the 2008 Constituent Assembly polls in Kathmandu. The response to the pilot test of electronic voting machines was positive. It was used again a year later in all six constituencies during the by-elections held in Morang constituencies 5 and 7, Dhanusha, Kaski, Rolpa, and Kanchanpur. However, the system that was used could not be continued in Nepal because the voting machines did not have enough buttons to cater to the high number of political parties contesting in Nepal’s elections. Nepal then started designing its own EVMs. During the 2017 federal and provincial elections, the use of those EVMs was discussed with the political parties. However, the key parties – Nepali Congress, the UML, and the CPN (Maoist Center) rejected the idea.
In Nepal, one of the major concerns about EVMs is the cost of the machines themselves. However, while they may require frequent maintenance, EVMs are a one-time investment. Other issues that have been raised against the use of EVMs are voter identification and security threat from hackers. However, the manufacturers of the voting machine that was designed in Nepal, which has been used in multiple small level elections, have said that there is no room for the internet or any other external device to connect to the machine, eliminating the threat of the machine being hacked.
It is critical to understand that most of the concerns regarding Nepal’s electoral procedure can be addressed by adopting EVMs during elections, strengthening Nepal’s democracy. EVMs can simplify the electoral procedure and boost the strength of democratic institutions. Since EVMs are designed to help prevent voters from selecting multiple candidates for the same position, it will reduce the count of invalid votes by eliminating the need for precise stamping inside a small box with borders. EVMs will also ensure that all the voters’ votes are counted properly. This will increase voters’ confidence and in return may increase voter turnout. Vote rigging, one of the main concerns of the elections in Nepal, can be avoided by introducing EVMs. A system that backs up all the cast votes electronically will help avoid problems like the one that happened in Rautahat. In addition, EVM will require lesser human resources, which is where a significant part of the election budget is spent. Hence, EVMs will also make the election time shorter, saving resources and time spent on vote counting, and reducing the cost of conducting elections, hence leading to lesser conflicts.
Conclusion and Way Forward
In conclusion, for a country like Nepal, where political instability and corruption are key concerns, elections are crucial in terms of making the general population’s voices heard. Election fraud hampers the process of fair and free election and EVMs make it difficult to facilitate fraud. EVMs increase transparency and accessibility, both of which promote voters’ trust. In addition, to eliminate the barriers caused by the physical locations for voting, like Nepalis residing abroad not being able to vote, Public-Network DRE (PN-DRE) can be used. PN-DRE transmits electronic ballots across networks, typically the internet, to a centralized location where ballots, collected from several stations are counted. Therefore, Nepal should adopt the best practices of other developing countries to introduce EVMs in the upcoming elections. While it might be difficult to introduce EVMs in the upcoming federal election, which is scheduled for November 2022, Nepal can aim to use EVMs in the next local elections which are held every five years.
Aarya Rijal is a recent graduate with a B.A. in Economics from Union College, USA. Her key interests are in corporate finance, macroeconomics, and international economics. Before joining NEF, Aarya worked as a student data analyst and a research assistant at Union College. She is currently working as a fellow at NEF.
