The Nepal Election Commission has announced that the election code of conduct will be enforced in the country from January 17, ahead of the March 5 elections.
During a briefing on election preparations to Prime Minister Sushila Karki on Friday, Acting Chief Election Commissioner Ram Prasad Bhandari said the code of conduct will come into effect from January 17.
The code of conduct clearly defines the activities that government and non-government organisations are permitted to carry out during the election period, as well as the responsibilities of political parties and other stakeholders to ensure a fair electoral process.
Addressing a press conference on Friday, the commission said that it will monitor the possible spread of false, misleading and negative information through social media sites ahead of the general election.
“Actively monitoring the possible spread of false information, negative publicity, hate messages, deep fakes, false sites or fake accounts, the commission will take legal action against the culprit,” said spokesperson of the commission Narayan Prasad Bhattarai. “We have also done correspondence with the Meta, Tiktok and X in this regard,” Bhattarai added.
The commission has also started using social media monitoring software for this purpose, he added.
According to the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, Prime Minister Karki and EC officials also discussed election preparations and logistics, among other issues.
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Finance Minister Rameshwar Khanal, Education Minister Mahabir Pun, Law Minister Anil Kumar Sinha, Chief Secretary Suman Raj Aryal, among others, were present on the occasion.
