The Local Level Restructuring Commission members met with the Election Commission officials, including Chief Election Commissioner Ayodhi Prasad Yadav, to enquire about EC’s timeline for holding the polls after the submission of the restructuring report.

During the meeting the EC told the LLRC that it would ideally like to have a time frame of six months to make the best arrangement possible to hold the polls, according to Shyam Krishna Bhurtel, spokesperson of the LBRC.

“We wanted to know how much time the EC would need to prepare for the polls once the report is ready. And we were informed that it would like to have six months duration to meet all the standard procedures for holding the elections,” informed Bhurtel.

After the Local Level Restructuring Report is ready, the government will have to adopt or own it and then hand it over to the EC to prepare the polls on the basis of the report.

The EC will then have to get the voters registration ready and finalise the logistics, including the number of booths.

The government is planning to hold the local level elections by March.

The LLRC has been stating that it will get the report ready by mid-October, provided there is no political obstruction.

It has proposed forming 565 local bodies, including townships and municipalities. This is a downsizing from the existing 3,374 village development committees and municipalities. The proposal is currently being discussed in all 75 districts.

Last week, Prime Minister Puspha Kamal Dahal had met with the Chief Election Commissioner and directed him to start preparations for the local level elections in line with what is determined after restructuring of local bodies.