Name commissioners within month to hold polls in April: EC

By Rajendra Pokhrel

The Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday said that the government needs to appoint the election commissioners within a month if elections are to be held in April as proposed by some parties.

Nil Kanta Upreti

In addition to making the appointments, political parties would also have to clear legal hurdles to pave the way for polls within November, said Acting EC Commissioner Nilkantha Upreti, who is set to retire in a few weeks.

The commission, which has provisions for four commissioners, only has three at the moment. While Upreti’s tenure is ending on November 22 commissioners Dolakh Bahadur Gurung and Ayodhi Prasad Yadav are to retire on December 14. The EC has been running without a chief commissioner after then chief Bhoj Raj Pokharel put in his papers shortly after the CA polls.

“The government needs to appoint commissioners and prepare legal grounds for the commission to hold elections,” said Upreti talking to Nepalnews.

Upreti’s remarks come as major political parties are yet to settle their differences on resolving the political deadlock that started after the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly on May 27. The government has also not been able to make appointments to important constitutional and judicial bodies in the absence of the parliament, which as per the constitution needs to endorse such appointments after a hearing.

The posts of chief commissioners and commissioners of Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority, Public Service Commission, Auditor General, four ambassadors, including Permanent Representative of Nepal to UN and ambassadors to India, Maldives and Thailand, have been lying vacant due to the lack of political consensus.

When the government tried to bring an ordinance to suspend the hearing provision to make the appointments, the President rejected it stating that he would not give his nod to any law that is not made through political consensus.

“All constitutional hurdles need to be cleared by amending the Interim Constitution and drafting election-related laws within November,” Upreti added. Major political leaders have been stating that the country needs to go for polls in April-May 2013, regardless of whether the CA is revived or not.

“It will be nearly impossible for the commission to prepare for elections in April if parties fail to reach a consensus within November,” said the commissioner. nepalnews.com