The ruling alliance also wants Local Election Act amended to eliminate contradictory provisions
KATHMANDU, JANUARY 29
The ruling alliance today recommended that the government hold local polls between mid-April and mid-May.
Minister of Communications and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki said the ruling alliance coordination committee recommended that the government hold local polls between mid-April and mid-May. He said that the government would fix the polls date after consulting with the Election Commission. Karki also said the ruling alliance recommended that the government amend the relevant laws to remove any contradictions.
Ruling alliance leader Beduram Bhusal said the ruling alliance asked the government to amend the Local Election Act as the provision that local polls should be held two months before the expiry of the tenure of local governments was against the constitutional provision that said the tenure of local governments should be five years.
Bhusal also said there was the question regarding which date - the first, second or third phase elections - should be counted as the beginning of local government's tenure. In 2017, local polls were held in three phases - on May 13, June 28, and September 18, respectively.
Section 4 of Local Election Act stipulates that in case local polls are held in more than one phase, the tenure shall be counted from the date of first phase local polls.
The ruling alliance leaders made the recommendation after civil society members and the main opposition CPN- UML condemned some ruling alliance leaders' idea of holding all three tiers' - parliamentary, provincial and local - polls between mid-November 2022 and mid-March 2023.
Recently, President Bidhya Devi Bhandari had also told Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba that local polls should not be delayed. Her concerns were also discussed today.
CPN-MC leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha said that although alliance leaders did not say anything negative about the president's concerns, privately, they deemed the president's concerns unconstitutional and prejudicial.
"The president should not have expressed those concerns when the government had not taken any decision about local polls," Shrestha said. He said ruling alliance leaders were of the view that contradiction in the Local Election Act should be removed and local elections should be held as per the spirit of the constitution. Shrestha said that today's decision meant that local polls would certainly be held between mid-April and mid-May.
The Election Commission has repeatedly reminded the government that the local polls should be held before May 19. It had also argued that as per the Local Election Act, local polls should be held two months before the expiry of the tenure of local governments.
The Election Commission has proposed that the government hold local polls in two phases on April 27 and May 5.
Nepali Congress Vice-president Purna Bahadur Khadka and CPN (Unified Socialist) leader Beduram Bhusal said that the ruling alliance had never decided that all three tiers - parliamentary, provincial and local - polls should be held simultaneously. Bhusal said that it was his party that floated the idea of holding all three tiers' polls simultaneously as that could save a lot of government money. He said that it was merely a proposal floated by party leaders keeping in mind the constitutional provision that stipulated that local poll could be delayed by six months.
Meanwhile, CPN (Unified Socialist) Chair Madhav Kumar Nepal said at a public programme today that his party was ready for local elections any time, in April, May, or September.
In an oblique reference to CPN-UML Chair KP Sharma Oli, Nepal said some forces were trying to create rift in the ruling alliance in the name of elections. "Some forces think that if elections are held soon, ruling alliance partners may not agree on seat sharing and their alliance will break up, but we are committed to maintaining our alliance till elections," he said and added that Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba also told the ruling alliance leaders today that they were committed to maintaining the alliance till elections.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 30, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
