EC prepared for May polls: Uprety
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2014-03-14,Kathmandu: Chief Election Commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety has said that the Election Commission (EC) is prepared to hold the local elections in May if the government announces the poll date by forging consensus among political parties and clears legal hurdles swiftly.“We hope the government will clear legal hurdles by the third week of March to allow us to work in full swing,” Uprety said on Thursday.
In an interview with the Post, Uprety refuted claims from some political parties that the constitution writing process would hamper if the local polls are conducted in May.
The UCPN (Maoist) and Madhes-based parties have opposed the ruling parties’ plan to hold the election in May, arguing that it could derail the ongoing constitution writing process.
He said the presence of elected people’s representatives at the local level would help institutionalise federalism and resolve possible disputes concerning border demarcation and allocation of natural resources.
“Both voters and candidates are already at the field. Those lawmakers assigned to write constitution need not go there even for poll campaigns. We don’t want to distract lawmakers from their assigned task,” said Uprety.
“Can a prime minister go to every village and resolve local disputes? Is not it the responsibility of elected representatives to be the part of federalism?” he questioned.
Local bodies are running without elected representatives for the last 12 years due to political instability in the government.
The EC taskforce, formed to draft new set of laws concerning the local bodies, is scheduled to submit it to the government by Sunday. The draft has envisioned 50 percent represenation of women in the local polls.
Source: Ekantipur
