Kathmandu, September 26:

The secretary at the Election Commission (EC), Dolakh Bahadur Gurung, said today that it would be very difficult for the EC to hold the election to a constituent assembly by

May 2007, as decided by

the government, if the eligible age for voting is changed to 16 years following the finalisation of the Interim Constitution.

“We are all prepared, as usual, internally and will do our best to hold the election to a constituent assembly as per the decision of the government and the political parties. But lots of decisions have to be made before that if we are going to follow the government’s decision of holding the election by May 2007,” he told reporters at his office.

According to him, the government has so far allocated Rs 1.25 billion for the scheduled constituent assembly election.

“The EC is updating the voters’ list, which is its regular job. We can move ahead only when the interim constitution makes provisions regarding the age, constituency, electoral process, among other things, clear. A series of discussions should be held with the political parties to sort out the issues. “A whole new election regulation has to be prepared before conducting any new decision,” he added. The government should have appointed the chief commissioner and other commissioners, who would have provided a formal way out for administrative problems, he said.

Asked about the authenticity of the previous municipal election held by the king’s government, he said, “That was a chapter, which has been closed by the Jana Andolan,” adding, however, that the election was a “great lesson in many ways”. Laxman Bhattarai, the joint-secretary at the EC, said the commission will be busy setting up an Information Centre in the commission so as to reach the largest number of people for dissemination of information about the election. “Similarly, special curricula will be introduced in schools, hoarding boards will be installed and street dramas held to disseminate information about the election.

Poll spending

KATHMANDU: The royal government had allocated Rs 220 million for holding municipal elections on February 8, the EC secretary Gurung disclosed on Tuesday. Out of the total amount, the centre had spent Rs 46.2 million on the topics of staffers’ allowance, printing of votes, and stationery. Rs 10.6 million was spent on running district election offices and Rs 28.7 million was spent on running offices of election officers, bringing the total expenditure to Rs 85.5 million. — HNS