Kathmandu, Nepal, January 18, 2022: The government and the ruling allies have been facing tremendous pressure to hold the local elections on time. Not only the Election Commission (EC) but also the opposition parties and the civil society have been exerting pressure for the timely election to avoid vacuum in the local bodies.
As the five-year terms of the representatives of the local bodies, which began on 20 May 2017, will officially end on 19 May 2022, the government has to hold the local level election by the end of April, 2022.
The first-phase of local level elections was held on May 14, 2017, the terms of the local representatives are deemed to have begun on May 20.
The new representatives must be elected by then so as to avoid a vacuum in the local bodies as clause 55 of the Local Level Election Act-2017 has clearly stated that the terms of local representatives start from the seventh day of the election date.
Considering to the situation, the EC has already apprised the Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and leaders of the major political parties to announce the local level election date before January 21 as it requires at least 120 days to make necessary preparations for the elections.
The EC had proposed that local poll election dates has to be fixed for April 27 if they were to be held in a single phase and April 27 and May 5, if they should be held in two phases.
Article 225 of the constitution of Nepal has made a provision that local elections can be held within six months of the end of the current officials’ terms. However, there is no law related to the constitutional provision to differ local level election by six months. The government has to bring a law either from the parliament or from the ordinance if it wants to delay to hold the election by six months.
Not only the main opposition CPN-UML but also the ruling head Nepali Congress want timely local level election. But unwillingness of other ruling allies, particularly the CPN (Maoist Centre) and the CPN (Unified Socialist), want to delay the local polls as they have not a strong vote base now.
It is said that the two communist parties seeking assurance of electoral alliance with the Nepali Congress not only in the National Assembly elections but also in the local, provincial and federal level elections believing that they would win some seats only if they fight the election under the current alliance with the Nepali Congress.
