Kathmandu, January 5:

The Election Commission today published its plan to hold constituent assembly polls by mid-June. The EC is going to update the voters’ list in all but some mountainous districts across the country from January 23 to February 6.

According to the data updated in April 2005, Nepal has 15.3 million voters.

Addressing a press conference held at his office, Chief Election Commissioner Bhoj Raj Pokharel said the government had to provide the EC with necessary legal instruments so that it could accelerate its preparations for the CA polls.

“Delay in promulgation of the interim constitution will affect the EC’s time schedule and it may be impossible to hold CA polls on time,” he said. As part of preparation for the CA polls, the EC recently imparted training to 20 officers and 176 computer operators in different districts.

A total of 140 officers and assistants in four development regions will be provided training on January 8 and 9.

On January 12 and 13, training will be provided to 4,721 assisting district-level name collectors in some Terai districts, while the same training will be held on January 17 and 18 in other districts.

“Some 22,000 collectors of voters’ names will be provided training on January 21 and 22 all over the country,” he said.

Pokharel has urged the government not to transfer any government staffer, which might affect the forthcoming elections.