Photo: Internet
By Our Reporter
Amid various speculations, the government has decided to hold the local level elections on May 13 simultaneously in all 753 local bodies of the country.
A meeting of the Council of Ministers held at the official residence of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba in Baluwatar on Monday fixed the date for the local elections.
After the meeting, Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gyanendra Karki, who is also the government spokesperson, said that the Cabinet decided to hold the local level elections on May 13 simultaneously.
“We had also held a discussion with the Election Commission to hold the election on May 18, but as there will be no difference legally to hold them on May 13, the government reached a conclusion to hold them on May 13,” Minister Karki said.
Earlier, the ruling parties had tried to postpone the elections for March next year, but their move drew wide public criticism. Although Maoist chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Unified Socialist chair Madhav Nepal were in the mood to hold the elections not before November, Prime Minister Deuba decided to hold them before the term of the elected representative expires. He was also in pressure to hold the elections in May from a faction in the Nepali Congress. Ultimately, he assured Dahal and Nepal of the continuity of the alliance and announced the date.
Although Deuba had earlier floated the idea of holding the local polls on May 18 and the Election Commission had also agreed on the date. But on Monday, he announced to hold it on May 13, probably with an intention of avoiding the situation when the local levels will be without elected representatives. If the elections fixed for May 18 could not be held in some local levels for some unavoidable reasons, they could be without representatives, which would be a violation of the Constitution.
It was also rumoured that Deuba fixed the date after consulting with his astrologer.
No matter what led Deuba to announce the date of the election, it has ended uncertainty about the local elections.
Deuba himself had conducted the second and the third phase of local elections in 2017 while Pushpa Kamal Dahal had conducted the first phase polls.
In 2017, the local level elections were held in three phases on May 14, June 28, and September 18.
On Sunday as well, PM Deuba had discussions with Chairman of the main opposition leader KP Sharma Oli and Chairman of the CPN-Maoist Centre Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda on local elections.
Even within the ruling Congress, voices were raised that elections be held in April. Leaders close to Dr. Shekhar Koirala were pushing for timely elections.
According to the Local Level Election Act 2073, the term of the current local level representatives will end on May 19, 2022. Also, the Constitution does not envisage local levels without people’s representatives.
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