Nepal govt to deploy army from Wednesday for March 5 elections

Kathmandu: Nepal's Army will begin deployment for the upcoming general elections from Wednesday, an army official said on Tuesday.

President Ramchandra Paudel has already approved the recommendation made by the government to mobilise the army for the House of Representatives elections.

The government implemented the House of Representatives Election Integrated Security Plan for strengthening the law and order situation during the election.

Under the plan, personnel from the Nepal Army, Armed Police Force, Nepal Police and National Investigation Department will be deployed in an integrated manner.

There will be three-tier security systems for conducting the general election. The Nepal Police and temporarily hired election police will make the first circle, while the Armed Police Force personnel will be deployed as the second circle of the security plan.

The Nepal Army personnel will be deployed in the third or outer circle as per the integrated security plan, the official said.

All the security agencies will deploy their personnel in all 165 election constituencies under the coordination of the Nepal Army, he added.

Nepal Army will deploy around 80,000 army personnel, while the total number of security personnel, including the temporary election police, will be around 3,40,000.

The security personnel will guard around 10,800 polling stations and 23,100 polling booths spread across 165 constituencies.