Chief Election Commissioner Ayodhee Prasad Yadav has said the Election Commission has yet to receive the poll-related laws.

The Act Related to the Election Commission and the Voter List Act have already been authenticated by the President but we have not received them from the government, Yadav said on Thursday.

At an interaction held at the Reporter’s Club, the CEC said the election authority could not proceed with the poll preparations at a time when the government is delaying the announcement of the election date, nor have we received any laws.

The government has written to the EC, asking it to prepare for the elections. In response, the constitutional body had presented a tentative work plan.

Unless the government provides the Local Level Restructuring Commission’s report to the EC and fixes the election date urgently, the elections would not be held by mid-May, said Yadav. The EC was working to conduct all the three layers of elections by January next year, as it was well aware of the constitutional deadline.

The ruling and opposition parties are at odds over whether to announce the elections or to pass the constitution amendment bill registered in Parliament first. The Madhes-based parties have warned of boycotting the polls if their demands were not addressed.

“We still have time for holding the local polls by mid-May. Though the government has not provided the basis for us, we are doing our homework,” said Yadav.

He said preparations were being made to use electronic voting machines, which would be procured from abroad as the Indian EVMs would not be large enough to handle the high number of parties and candidates here.