In a move announced in early January but now becoming operational, the Election Commission has accredited 40 organisations to observe the March 5 House of Representatives elections.
As detailed by Digital Rights Nepal's January newsletter and other election updates, 36 national and 4 international organisations were approved under the Election Observation Guidelines 2079 from a pool of 51 applicants. International observers include The Carter Center, ANFREL, the International Republican Institute and the Multidisciplinary Institute of Training and Learning.
Accredited groups are now finalising deployment plans, training observers and preparing voter information materials. Their mandates typically cover monitoring polling centres, counting processes, media environments and, increasingly, online campaigning and information integrity.
The EC also highlights its Election Information Dissemination and Coordination Center (EIDC) as a complementary mechanism, providing official data to observers and the public while working to counter misinformation, hate speech and deepfakes in coordination with major platforms.
For voters wary of state institutions alone guaranteeing fairness, the presence of independent observers can add a layer of scrutiny—if those observers are genuinely independent, well‑resourced and willing to publish uncomfortable findings about all actors, including the Commission itself.