The ruling parties on Wednesday decided to seek a broader political consensus on the mandate, term and references of the Local Bodies Restructuring Commission within a week.

A joint meeting of the ruling alliance and the commission on Wednesday decided to hold consultations with the opposition and other fringe parties in order to come up with a final recommendation. This decision comes amid opposition to the commission’s proposal to drastically reduce the number of local bodies to 565 by the Nepali Congress and the Madhesi Morcha.

The then KP Oli-led government had formed a local level restricting commission headed by former secretary Balananda Poudel in March last year. The report

and recommendation of the commission is key to holding the local level elections. The Nepali Congress and the

CPN (Maoist Centre)

have decided to hold the elections of the local bodies by next May.

“Restructuring of the local bodies is a political matter so we have to seek a broader political consensus,” PMO officials quoted Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal

Dahal was as saying

during the meeting. “We will forge a political consensus within a week and the commission will be instructed accordingly.”

According to the Maoist Vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha, the meeting decided to hold consultations with the opposition parties and others to build a political consensus on the terms and mandate of the commission. “The report of the commission should come at the earliest so that

we can meet April/May deadline to hold the local elections,” he said.

Commission’s Chair Poudal briefed the PM and the coalition partners on the progress.

“Implementation of the new constitution is the

primary task of the government so that we have to hold elections of the local, federal and provincial bodies by another 18 months. We have also decided to hold the local level elections by April/May to facilitate the commission in carrying out its task,” PM Dahal said.

During the meeting, some leaders cautioned against delay in submitting the report, saying that it would make holding the local elections by April/May difficult. The Election Commission has already communicated to the government that it will need at least 120 days to prepare for the elections once all laws are put in place.