By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Apr. 7: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya has said that local elections would be held with national resources.
The expenses for the local polls scheduled for May 13 would be managed with national resources, he added.
During the discussion with the executive heads of the state-run media on Wednesday, Chief Commissioner Thapaliya clarified that the assistance sought from the donors for the election has not been received so far.

“Discussions were held with 19 donor agencies. They have pledged assistance but we have not received it so far,” he said.
Earlier in March, the Election Commission held a meeting with the representatives of the donor agencies to seek assistance. During the meeting, representatives of the donor agencies had expressed their commitment to provide assistance by identifying the areas.
According to Thapaliya, the EC had been receiving regular assistance from ESP programme of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

These partner organisations have also been providing technical assistance including training.
The EC had demanded a budget of around Rs 8.95 billion for the local polls. Ministry of Finance has already released budget of Rs. 8.11 billion. However, the ministry has assured to provide more budget if necessary.

Ballot paper for Karnali has been printed
The printing of ballot papers for Karnali Province has been completed. The Janak Education Materials Centre (JEMC) formally started printing ballot papers from Monday.
Chief Commissioner Thapaliya has said that the printing of ballot papers for Karnali has been completed.

A meeting of the commission held on Monday approved the design of ballot papers for Karnali Province and Sudurpaschim Province.
There are 1,001,279 voters in Karnali Province. The commission has stated that 25 per cent extra ballot papers will be printed for the remote areas. As per the decision, about 1.2 million ballot papers have been printed for the local polls of Karnali. There are 79 local levels in 10 districts of Karnali Province.

Similarly, the process of printing ballot papers for Sudurpaschim Province is going on, the EC stated. Chief Commissioner Thapaliya said that the commission would take a decision soon and give instructions to print ballot papers of other provinces as well.

He said that the printing of ballot papers for the three districts of Kathmandu Valley and local levels except Biratnagar, Birgunj, Pokhara and Bharatpur Metropolitan City will be completed by April 30.
The ballot papers for these local bodies will be printed only after the final list of candidates is published.

Commission on schedule
The Election Commission has stated that the local elections are being prepared as per the election schedule.
Chief Commissioner Thapaliya informed that the election materials to be used in the local polls were still coming and preparations were being made to implement the code of conduct.
He further informed that the process of appointing election officials had been started as the election officials have to be appointed prior to the implementation of the code of conduct.
The commission urged to publish the news related to the election with priority and localise the information.