Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has ruled out local body elections in the existing local structure.

“Holding local elections in the old structure means backtracking on constitution implementation,” the PM told journalists in Birendranagar on Tuesday. He said the local level polls would be held before the other layers of election.

Dahal, who is also the chairman of the CPN (Maoist Centre), said the government was preparing to announce the date of the polls to be held by April next year.

The PM had arrived in Surkhet for a party programme after inaugurating the Hilsa bridge in Humla district. He was accompanied by Maoist leaders Narayan Kaji Shrestha, Ram Bahadur Thapa and Shakti Basnet.

Dahal instructed party cadres to focus on elections. He claimed that the coalition of the Maoists and the Nepali Congress would not end anytime soon.