The ruling Nepali Congress has yet to formally discuss about holding the elections while the UCPN (Maoist) and Madhes-based parties have stood against the polls before the promulgation of a new constitution.

“The government is yet to float a proposal for conducting local elections so we have not discussed the issue in our party meeting,” said NC General Secretary Krishna Sitaula.

Another ruling party CPN-UML has decided to go for local polls. The party has expressed dissatisfaction at the delay in announcing the poll date by reaching consensus among the parties.

UML leaders are also not clear about whether the elections should happen. “Going by the preparations, it is difficult to say when the polls may take place,” said UML leader Bhim Rawal.

In its policy and programmes, the government has decided of hold the local elections at the earliest by consulting with the political parties. However, it is not clear when the polls would be held.

All the parties committed in their election manifestoes to holding the long-delayed local polls within six months of the formation of the second CA. But the Maoist and Madhes-based parties have backtracked on their promise after their unexpected loss in the CA elections.

Despite uncertainty, the election body has readied a draft of an election law making changes to the Local Body Election Procedure (2048). “The draft is ready and we will forward it to Home Ministry soon,” said EC’s legal chief Leela Bartaula.

For amending the Local Self-governance Act (1995), the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development has forwarded a draft to the Ministry of Law to ease the election process. Both the laws have proposed a minimum 40 percent representation of women in local governance bodies.

The election body has been suggesting that the parties agree on holding the polls by the end of May. EC believes that holding the polls in November complicates the process further as parties will be busy finalising the constitution.

“We believe that holding the polls will be easier as early as the parties decide,” Chief Election Commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety told the Post recently.

Local bodies are running without people’s representatives for the last 12 years due to political instability.