The Election Commission (EC) has urged Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to announce date for local elections, saying that local development and reconstruction of quake-damaged infrastructures would gain pace following the polls.

In a meeting with PM Oli on Thursday, Acting Chief Election Commissioner Ayodhee Prasad Yadav drew the government head’s attention towards holding long-delayed election at the local bodies. 

“The local elections will not only help local development but also reconstruction of quake-damaged infrastructures. So we urge you to fix the date for local polls and create conducive environment for the same,” acing Election Chief Yadav told PM Oli.

An EC delegation held discussion with PM Oli in the context of long-delayed local elections. Local bodies are running without elected people’s representatives for the past 13 years due to the government’s failure to hold local polls periodically. 

The acting chief election commissioner said the election body was committed to hold the polls in a free, fair and impartial manner if the government fixed date for the election. The prime minister was also urged to make the voter ID card mandatory for election.

In response, PM Oli assured the EC commissioners of initiating preparations for conducting the local body election. “Assuring to expedite the law amendment process in order to hold local body polls, the prime minister hinted the EC to begin internal preparation for the polls,” reads a statement issued by the EC.

During Thursday’s meeting, EC Commissioner Ila Sharma stressed on the need for empowering the commission with the mandate of declaring the poll date and make it fully autonomous body for the sake of timely elections.