KATHMANDU, JULY 26
Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya today said that one should not be surprised if the next meeting of the Cabinet decides to hold provincial and parliamentary polls on November 20.
Thapaliya said at a press conference that the polls panel had suggested dates for the next parliamentary and provincial polls and he was hopeful that the government would announce the polls date around the same date that the EC had recommended to the government.
The EC spent Rs 5.4 billion in the local polls held on May 13. Thapaliya said election expenditure would increase in the parliamentary and provincial polls as the EC would have to print huge number of ballot papers.
"We printed 20 million ballot papers for local polls but for parliamentary and provincial elections, we will have to print 80 million ballot papers," Thapaliya said.
According to EC's press release, although the NC won more mayoral posts than any other party, the party's vote share for mayors/chiefs is less than the CPN-UML's.
While the NC won 33.56 per cent votes in mayoral race, the UML won 34.58 per cent.
While the NC won 141 mayors, UML won 83 mayoral posts in last local polls. In the ward level vote share NC is ahead of UML with 34.28 per cent votes. The UML secured 33.03 per cent votes.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 27, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
