The Nepal Government has finally decided to conduct both provincial and federal parliamentary elections in a single phase on November 26, 2017.

An official decision in this regard was taken in a Cabinet meeting held on Monday.

Prior to this, the Election Commission (EC) of Nepal had urged the government to conduct the elections in two different phases citing time constraints, lack of relevant laws and Constituency Delimitation Commission (CDC) report, human resource and logistical issues as major gaps.

In this regard, the election body had proposed two different dates for conducting elections in two phases – November 20 in Hill and Mountain areas and on December 7 in Tarai region.

In a meeting with Commission officials in the first week of August 2017, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had urged EC to conduct both the polls on a single go for ensuring timely polls for meeting the constitutional deadline and to minimize related expenditure.

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In a recent update on upcoming polls in the country, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba asked the Election Commission (EC) to plan for conducting both the provincial and federal elections at a time.

Deuba’s statement followed EC’s call to the government to announce the date for conducting provincial and federal parliamentary elections by August 17. In this regard, EC met Deuba on Monday.

According to PM’s senior press coordinator Govinda Pariyar, PM’s decision of holding the elections together aimed at ensuring timely polls for meeting the constitutional deadline and also minimize related expenditure.

Deuba also informed EC officials that the two election-related laws that are pending would also be passed by the Parliament soon. The Constituency Delimitation Commission (CDC) is also yet to submit its report, which is vital to conduct elections.

The Commission also sought clarification over the usage of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for elections to plan training sessions for the concerned personnel on EVM usage. To this, Deuba asked if EC could complete procurement and voter awareness programmes in a short time.

Election Commissioner Ila Sharma informed that they have also discussed about the ‘voters’ right to reject the candidates’ option in line with the Supreme Court verdict. The Commissioner also urged PM to ensure voting right to Nepali citizens living abroad.

“We may not implement such provision immediately, but the law should open the door for EC to make arrangements for involving Nepalis living abroad in the polls in future,” said the Commissioner.

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Keeping in view the upcoming provincial and federal elections, the Government of Nepal has formed the Constituency Delineation Commission (CDC) headed by former Supreme Court Justice Kamal Narayan Das.

Yogendra Sharma Paudel has been appointed as the Commission Secretary while Madhav Adhikari, Bishwa Kalyan Parajuli and Ganesh Raj Karki would be the other members of the CDC.

The government has mandated the CDC to complete the task of delineation of federal boundaries within 21 days. However, the CDC members are skeptical about finishing the activity within such a short duration and point out that it took five months to complete the same task before the 2008 Constituent Assembly polls.

Former chief election commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety has welcomed the formation of the CDC and opined that while delineating constituencies is a difficult task, it would be of great help to the election commission in conducting the elections fairly.

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