KATHMANDU: The ruling Nepali Congress is discussing criteria and procedures for candidate selection for the upcoming local level elections, in the ongoing Central Working Committee meeting today.

The Central Office Secretariat informed that the CWC members speaking during the meeting today expressed their views about the candidate selection procedures.

CWC member Surendra Raj Pandey said he expressed his opinion that Central Office should select candidates for municipalities, sub-metropolitan cities and metropolitan cities whereas candidates for wards and rural municipalities should be picked by the district committees.

Meanwhile, discussions were also underway about restructuring the party organisation in line with the fresh local level restructuring and mobilisation of party's sister wings for the election preparations.

CWC members Gyanendra Bahadur Karki, Deepak Giri, Bal Krishna Khand, Ananda Raj Dhungana, Mohan Basnet and Surendra Raj Pandey among others spoke during the meeting today.

Earlier, the CWC on had formed a 29-member Central Executive Committee to take decisions on significant issues in absence of the CWC meeting.

Likewise, two panels had been formed for cadre mobilisation and manifesto preparation for the local polls scheduled for May 14.