Local polls after monsoon

The Election Commission of Nepal (ECN), and Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD) Thursday informed that they had expedited the works to make necessary arrangement to hold the election of local bodies immediately after the monsoon.

Bir Bahadur Rai, spokesperson of the ECN said that the Commission had been making internal preparations, including drafting the election work procedure, for the local elections since long.

“We have drafted the work procedure for the poll and forwarded it to the government. I hope the government will present it to upcoming session of the Legislature-Parliament,” Rai said.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari had summoned the summer session of the Legislature-Parliament from Tuesday.

According to Rai, although there had not been any discussions regarding the local elections between the ECN and government recently, the Commission had made significant progress towards making the election happen.

The civil society has been blaming the major political parties for running the local bodies without people’s representatives for the past 16 years.

The development works had been severely affected due to the lack of elected representatives while their absence hampered the data collection as well as rescue and relief operations in the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes in the April and May last year.

Similarly, secretary of MoALD Mahendra Man Gurung informed the Development Committee of the Legislature Parliament Thursday that without the elected representatives in the local bodies, it would be burdensome to manage development projects at the municipalities and VDCs.

Gurung said that more than 40,000 projects had been implemented by the District Development Committees and municipalities across the country. “If we add the projects in the VDCs the total number of development projects will be doubled.”

He assured that the election of local bodies would be held after the rainy season and stated that the ministry was prepared for the job.

Spokesperson of the MoFALD Purna Chandra Bhattarai said that the Ministry had prepared a draft to amend the Local Self-Governance Act, 1999 which would be presented in the Parliament’s upcoming session.

“As per the new constitution, the female representation in the local bodies should be 40 per cent which is more than double of the Local Self-Governance Act, 1999,” Bhattarai informed.

However, he stated that the elections could happen even with the amendment of the Act, if the parliament passes the work procedure for the polls.

 Meanwhile, chairman of the Development Committee Rabindra Adhikari directed the government and MoFALD to hold the election of the local bodies as per the article 203 of the constitution at the earliest.