Chief Election Commissioner Ayodhee Prasad Yadav has said the Election Commission is ready to conduct the local elections within May-June if all the legal provisions are made within a week.

Yadav, who is currently in New Delhi to renew a memorandum of understanding between the election commissions of Nepal and India, said the local, provincial and national elections would be conducted by January 21 next year.

The government plans to hold the local elections within May-June, provincial elections in September and national elections by January.

He said the EC would speed up the preparations after 

the laws are passed and the election date announced. The election authority was working to increase voter turnover in the upcoming polls. “Last election, there was 80 percent turnover. We will increase it in the upcoming vote,” he said.

An MoU signed between the election bodies of the two countries in 2011 on mutual cooperation in election management has been renewed. 

The understanding covers exchange of knowledge and experience in the fields of electoral process, exchange of materials and expertise, training of personnel, productions and dissemination of materials, voting technology and voter education and awareness.

Govt committed to timely polls: NC chief Deuba

Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba has said the government was committed to holding the local level elections at the earliest. “The prime minister is committed to conducting the polls by May. As a coalition partner, our party has full support to him,” Deuba said while unveiling the statue of late NC leader Ganeshman Singh in Surkhetroad, Nepalgunj, on Tuesday.