MORANG: Secretary at the Election Commission, Krishna Bahadur Raut, has mentioned that governing digital platforms in the upcoming election has become a major challenge.

He said it in a two-day orientation on election conduct and management for chief returning officers, election officers, province and district election officers for the election to the House of Representatives in Biratnagar today. Raut shared that the EC has been carrying out activities being aware towards the impacts due to misleading information spread through social media in coming election at a time when social media have become main media for the election publicity.

According to him, a team comprising Nepali Army, Nepal Police, IT group of Telecom Authority has been working to resolve the possible problems that might surface through social platforms. The social networking platforms, Facebook and X,¬ have been urged to prevent dissemination of wrong information.

Offices of returning officer would be established on January 16 under the election programmes, viewed Secretary Raut.

Sharing that authority has been given to district election offices to purchase 37-types of election materials, he opined that budget has already been approved for 165 election constituencies of the country.

Similarly, Principle Secretary of Koshi Province government, Rajendra Kumar Poudel, seconded Raut that social platforms had become challenge for election security along with province’s geography, open border and use of illegal vehicles.

Different working papers would be presented in the two-day orientation. Chief returning officers, returning officers, province and district election officers of some districts of Koshi and Madhes provinces have been attending the orientation.