Biratnagar, May 11:

Though the government is yet to fix a date for holding the Constituent Assembly elections, the District Election Office (DEO) in Morang has started sending ballot boxes to 16 districts of the eastern region.

The Election Commission has provided 16,000 ballot boxes for the region.

The district election chief, Mahesh Raj Timsina, said the ballot boxes were being sent to the eastern districts by road and by air. He added that 288 boxes were sent to Terhathum district, while 423 have been sent to Dhankuta.

Timsina said boxes would also be sent to remote hilly districts of the region — Sankhuwasabha, Bhojpur, Khotang, Okhaldhunga and Solukhumbu — in a helicopter, while boxes in the other remaining districts would be sent by road.

According to the Morang DEO, 372 ballot boxes will be sent to Taplejung, 529 to Panchthar, 665 to Ilam, 2,045 to Jhapa, 458 to Sankhuwasabha, 598 to Bhojpur, 2,006 to Morang, 1,569 to Sunsari, 319 to Solukhumbu, 591 to Khotang, 453 to Okhaldhunga and 761 to Udaypur district.

The number of boxes to be sent to these districts has been determined in accordance with the number of voters and polling booths, the DEO said.

The boxes, which are semi transparent, have been donated by the Japanese government.