Uma Dahal energetically paces back and forth in front of a group of patients at a drug rehabilitation center in Biratnagar, one of the largest cities in Nepal.  She holds a brightly-colored flipchart that helps explain the steps of voter registration to the quiet but attentive audience.  She is part of a team of citizens who encourage eligible voters to register to vote and recognize the importance of participating in elections.

It is estimated that up to 5 million eligible Nepalis are not registered to vote. To combat this trend, the Election Commission of Nepal has launched a voter registration initiative and several voter education programs.  IFES is implementing these projects with the support of local civil society organizations.  This outreach effort is focused on the most disadvantaged groups in Nepal: women, youth, Dalits — members of the lowest caste based on the Hindu social hierarchy —  and freed bonded laborers.  The voter education programs are built on the premise that it is essential for all Nepalis to understand their democratic rights and participate in their country’s electoral process.

The new voter registration and identification initiative digitally collects voters’ fingerprints, photographs and personal information. This process and the resulting electronic voter list will provide clear and fast identification of voters, deter voting fraud, and identify and remove duplicate and deceased registrants.  Since the electronic voter registration process is still unknown to many citizens, IFES’ outreach aims to increase awareness of the steps to voter registration. 

In Biratnagar, Dahal is part of the program aimed at youth. She is one of many “youth champions” who work for Youth Initiative, a civil society organization IFES partners with in this endeavor.  They use a peer-to-peer educational approach in which young people are trained on the voter registration process and then conduct awareness-raising sessions at high school and college campuses, local youth clubs and community events targeting underprivileged youth who do not attend school.

Using local languages, the youth champions use IFES-produced flipcharts and Youth Initiative-designed leaflets to communicate their message.  They say they feel they are connecting with the young people in their communities, who often ask complex and profound questions about voter registration, the electoral process and politics in general. 

A major challenge the Youth Initiative team faces is motivating the local community once the voter registration message is delivered.  The poorest members of the community do not always see the benefit of registering when their primary concern is making ends meet. Still, the local District Election Office in Biratnagar says that since the start of the IFES-Youth Initiative project, there has been an increase in the number of young people registering to vote, many for the first time.

In the ancient Nepali city of Janakpur, the Janaki Women’s Awareness Society (JWAS) works with IFES to educate women on the voter registration process. Emphasis is placed on reaching out to Dalits and janajati (indigenous Nepalis), on the voter registration process.   

JWAS utilizes already-available resources in the local communities:  Female Community Health Volunteers who make regular household visits to distribute vaccines and vitamins to women and children.  These volunteers have been trained to communicate the need and importance of, and the steps to, voter registration.

“Many women in more conservative families rarely leave their homes,” a member of the JWAS staff explains.  It is therefore important for trusted members of the community to reach out to women cosseted in their homes with the voter education message. 

Many of these female volunteers are themselves from disadvantaged communities. Some are illiterate and have struggled to learn the messages they deliver.  They are especially powerful messengers because they have overcome the very challenges some of their audience face.   

With these grassroots efforts, over 710,000 people have been educated on the new initiative through over 95,000 events across Nepal. The success of the programs has demonstrated the benefits of partnering with local organizations that understand the needs of their target populations and using individuals who are known and trusted in their communities to deliver messages.

Many District Election Officers are grateful for the work of these civil society organizations. “They make our job easier,” says one Janakpur official.  These various open lines of communication facilitate information sharing, which will in turn shape the future of the voter registration process in Nepal.