KATHMANDU: A meeting of the coalition partners in the incumbent government has agreed to hold local elections in coming May/June.
At a meeting of the top leaders of the ruling coalition held at the Prime Minister’s residence in Baluwatar this evening, they agreed to hold local elections in May/June.
Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki informed that they have decided to make suggestions to the government.
Following the coalition’s decision today, the government will now be able to set a date for local elections in consultation with the Election Commission.
There are 753 local bodies across the country, including Metropolitan Cities, Sub-Metropolitan Cities, Municipalities and Rural Municipalities. Their term of five year will expire on coming May/June.
Earlier, there were widespread protests against the government’s intention to postpone the election. Main opposition party CPN UML had warned that they would start agitation if government fail to announce the election.
The government had discussed the issue of postponing local elections by amending the Local Level Election Act. In a meeting with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba last Thursday, President Bidya Devi Bhandari had also suggested not to postpone local elections.
Nepali Congress Central Meeting had also suggested to hold local election, and not to postpone at any cost. However, CPN (Maoist Center) and newly formed Madhav Kumar Nepal led CPN (Unified Socialist) were suggesting for delaying the local elections.
