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Nepal polls likely to miss June deadline
The much anticipated election for a new Constituent Assembly in Nepal is likely to get delayed, reports Utpal Parashar.
The much anticipated election for a new Constituent Assembly in Nepal is likely to get delayed.
The 11-point agreement among four major parties had proposed polls by June 21 but the interim election council led by Khil Raj Regmi is yet to announce election dates - more than two weeks after assuming charge.
On Saturday, the Election Commission stated that possibility of holding polls within the June deadline is unlikely unless election-related amendments are made within the next few days.
Refusals by nearly three dozen parties to take part in the polls, differences over voters’ lists and voters’ age and disruptions to registration of voters are other factors delaying announcement of poll dates.
“The EC can recommend a poll date only after government formulates election-related Acts and creates environment favourable for election,” chief election commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety told the Republica daily.
If polls are not held by June, before the onset of the monsoon season, it could get delayed by several more months.
The agreement signed earlier this month stipulates that if polls are not held in June due to technical reasons, the interim council can fix another date within December 15.
“It is our wish and priority to hold elections within schedule. But judging by the present circumstances, it seems unlikely,” senior Nepali Congress leaders Bimalendra Nidhi told the Kantipur daily.
Fresh polls to elect a new Constituent Assembly which in turn would frame the Constitution is seen is the way out of Nepal’s continuing crisis following dissolution of the CA in May last year.
