Unable to withstand pressure from the different stakeholders, the ruling alliance on Saturday recommended that the government hold the local polls between mid-April and mid-June. Barring the Nepali Congress, the other parties in the five-party ruling alliance had been trying to defer the local elections to a date when it was more favourable for them by misinterpreting the constitution and the laws, especially the Local Election Act. Some of the parties in the alliance had been for holding elections of all the three tiers – parliamentary, provincial and local – between mid-November 2022 and mid-March 2023. By holding the parliamentary polls before the local polls, the CPN-Maoist Centre and CPN-Unified Socialist Party, in particular, wanted to secure the alliance until all the elections were over. The government is to fix the election date for the local polls after holding consultations with the Election Commission.

There have been different interpretations by the parties of the Local Election Act, which states that the local polls must be held two months before the expiry of the five-year term of the local levels. Since the last local polls in 2017 were held in three different phases – on May 14, June 28 and September 18 – there is confusion on whether the tenure of the local levels begins from the first phase of the election or the last one. However, Section 4 of the act clearly stipulates that should the local polls be held in more than one phase, the tenure should be counted from the date of the first phase. To avoid any confusion about the constitutional provisions regarding the holding of the local poll in the future, the government should amend the Local Election Act to remove the contradictory provisions, as recommended by the ruling alliance. While the act stipulates that the polls should be held two months before the expiry of the term, the constitution has it that the tenure should be of five years.

With the decision, the ruling alliance should stop dithering and start preparing for a favourable outcome in the elections to be held just months ahead.

For the majority of the people, the local polls are more important than the other elections. The local levels today have been provided a lot of responsibilities and rights, from making recommendations for citizenship to authenticating birth and death certificates as well as marriage certificates, and collecting revenue. Since the public schools and basic health care and sanitation also come under their jurisdiction, the salaries of the employees are provided by the local levels. All these activities require the signature of the elected ward chairperson or mayor or rural municipality chairperson. Inability to hold the local elections on time would hamper a lot of work being carried out on a daily basis in the offices and cause great inconvenience to the service seekers.

We've seen how local development suffered in the absence of elected representatives in the past after the local bodies were dissolved in 2002 and elections could not be held until 2017 under a new constitution.

The local elections are at the heart of Nepal's federal democratic future, and the government and the parties at the centre should stop interfering in them.

We've seen how local development suffered in the absence of elected representatives after the local bodies were dissolved in 2002

Calibration flight

Though belated, preparations are underway to conduct a calibration flight at Gautam Buddha International Airport (GBIA) before February 21 so that international visitors could directly fly to GBIA well before Buddha Jayanti. While inspecting the preparations being made on Saturday, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Prem Bhadaur Ale instructed the concerned officials to complete all remaining tasks without further delay.

The calibration flight has been hampered due to foggy weather, which will continue for some days to come. A team of technicians from Thailand's Aero Thai, which has won a contract to conduct the calibration flight, has already arrived in Bhairahawa. It will be conducting the calibration flight and examine other equipment related to air navigation, radar and other communication systems installed at the airport.

It will also provide training to Nepali staff on handling the airport's navigation system. Once Aero Thai certifies that the navigation systems are perfect for international flights, NAC will carry out test flights at the GBIA. After GBIA comes into full operation, pressure at the TIA will lessen, and Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha, can receive more tourists.

A version of this article appears in the print on January 31, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.