By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Jan. 26: The Election Commission (EC) has called the government to announce the date for the election of local levels at the earliest.
Issuing a press statement, Saligram Sharma Poudel, spokesperson for the Commission said, "It is evident that delay in declaration of election dates would make the management of holding the election procedure even more challenging." "Thus, we request the government to announce the polling dates as per Section 4 (1) of Local Level Election Act, 2017," said spokesperson Poudel.

Last year on October 25 and on January 22 this year, the EC officials had briefed Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba about the term of office bearers of the local governments would end on May 19. As the officials did not receive any response regarding the declaration of polling dates, the EC urged the government to declare the dates as soon as possible.

"The EC generally needs 120 days to ensure and the preparation and management for the election, and preparations to collect voters' list, review of voting centres and other works are being conducted, the Commission is in ready position to complete the local level election by mid-May.

The Commission clarified that delay in election would create more technical challenges as per the Local Level Election Act, 2017.