Kathmandu, January 31

Nepal is holding all three-tier of elections — local, provincial and parliamentary — within the next one year in order to meet the constitutional deadline, the government today apprised the Kathmandu-based diplomatic missions and donor community.

During a collective briefing to foreign envoys, Minister for Foreign Affairs Prakash Sharan Mahat said the government was also trying to bring Madhesi and opposition parties on board to pass the constitution amendment bill.

Ambassadors and heads of missions of all bilateral and multilateral missions — including ambassadors of India, China, USA, Germany, Japan and EU as well as UN resident coordinator, were present at the briefing.

“We will hold all three elections within a year. The government will soon announce dates for local polls,” Minister Mahat briefed the media following the briefing.

He further apprised the envoys that the government would take all stakeholders — including the disgruntled Madhesi parties as well as the main opposition CPN-UML — on board to pass the constitution amendment bill and announce dates for polls. “We are also trying to amend the constitution to make it acceptable to all,” he told the envoys.

During the briefing, many envoys had raised concerns if the local elections would be held in a free and fair manner. Some envoys also expressed concern about the delay in resolving insurgency-era rights violation cases, on which the foreign minister said the two transitional justice bodies— the Truth and Justice Commission and the Commission of Investigation on the Enforced Disappeared Persons— were working to this effect.