By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Jan. 19: A meeting of the ruling political parties’ joint mechanism, the High Level Political Coordination Committee on Tuesday discussed holding local election.
The meeting held at Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s official residence in Baluwatar agreed to hold the local level election in April as per the constitutional provisions.

After the meeting, committee member and the spokesperson for the government Gynendra Bahadur Karki informed that the meeting discussed holding local level election in time.
However, the Committee is scheduled to hold discussion with the Election Commission to announce the election date.

Prime Minister Deuba also attended the meeting chaired by committee coordinator and NC leader Ram Chandra Paudel. Minister for Communications and Information Technology Karki informed that the meeting discussed mainly two issues.
“Number one, the meeting discussed the ways to ensure the victory of the candidates of the parties in the ruling alliance in the National Assembly election scheduled for January 26, secondly, it discussed holding local level election in time,” he said.

“The local level election will be conducted as per constitutional provisions in time. We are in consultation with the Election Commission,” he said.
Karki further informed that the government was committed to holding local level election in time to strengthen federalism. The EC had earlier suggested the government to hold the local level elections on April 27 and May 5.

The committee meeting also decided to hold another meeting to make a final decision on local polls.
Earlier on January 14, the Election Commission had suggested the government to fix the date for local level elections by January 21 citing that the election body requires 120 days to complete 53 legal procedures before holding the local elections.

In a meeting attended by the representatives of all political parties, the EC officials had reminded the government of the constitutional provisions requiring to hold local polls by May 5.
The term of the office bearers of the local levels elected in 2017 is expiring on May 19.