By Our Reporter
Election Commission has proposed to hold the local level election on April 27, 2022.
In a meeting with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and other ministers held in Baluwatar
last week, election commissioners have proposed to hold all local elections on April 27 next year.
Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya said that it would be appropriate to hold all local elections on the same day as this would be cost-effective, easy in terms of security management and overall election management, bring uniformity in voter education materials and the election results in one place would not affect the other.
If for some reason it is not possible to hold the election on the same day, the second phase poll could be held on May 5, the EC said.
In response, Prime Minister Deuba said the government would move ahead with the EC’s proposal after consulting with the political parties.
The term of office of local-level officials is coming to an end on May 19. According to the existing legal provisions, the existing seats of local representatives will fall vacant after May 19, for which the election management body has to hold an election.
According to Article 225 of the Constitution, elections must be held within six months of the end of the term, so that new ones can replace them.
The EC has stated that it needs 120 days to prepare for the election.
During the meeting, election commissioners also proposed to use voting machines in local level elections.
In response, Prime Minister Deuba said that consensus of political parties should be sought and voting machines would be used in certain constituencies even if not in all constituencies.
According to the Election Commission, a total of 577,669 voters have been added to the voter list till December 24. This campaign will end on January 3, 2022.
Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand, Minister for Information and Communication Gyanendra Bahadur Karki, Minister for Law, Justice and Federal Affairs Dilendra Prasad Badu and secretaries of Home Ministry and Finance Ministry were present at the meeting.
Omicron threat but borders with India is opened
Nepal-India open border
Although Nepal reported only two cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19, the threat of the new wave has risen considering the growing cases in India. As of today, India reported over 500 cases of the new variant in 21 states. New Delhi, the capital of India, has imposed restrictions to control the spread of Omicron variants.
When the cases surge in India, it will also affect Nepal as many infected people could enter Nepal taking advantage of the open border. The government too has done nothing to control the entry of people in Nepal from the open border.
If the government does not take steps immediately to control the free cross border movements, Nepal will soon become a hotspot of the new variant of the virus.
Meanwhile, the plan of the government, to start a vaccination drive for children aged 2-17 in eight districts including the three districts of the Kathmandu Valley from Tuesday has been postponed due to the lack of syringes.
The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) decided to hold its plan to vaccinate children aged 12-17 with the Pfizer vaccine in lack of syringes.
The plan to roll out the Pfizer vaccine have been affected due to a lack of syringes, said Dr. Sameer Kumar Adhikari, deputy spokesperson at the MoHP. The vaccination campaign will be conducted in the districts as soon as after the availability of syringes, he added.
However, the regular vaccination campaign with Vero Cell, AstraZeneca, Moderna and Janssen vaccines, will continue, said Dr. Adhikari.
Other vaccines need a 0.5ml auto-disable syringe, while a 0.3ml syringe is needed for the Pfizer vaccine, which had not arrived sufficiently with the vaccines.
Login to add a comment