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Thoughts on next CA polls



The Himalayan Times
5 April 2013
Listening to the Election Commission (EC) officials over the radio talk program, I found them to be indirectly conceding that the next CA would not be possible in June if the outstanding issues (such as the issuance of citizenship certificates to the eligible voters, the compilation and completion of voters registration, and amendment to some laws related to the election) were not be addressed immediately. Now, the EC has started officially considering deferring the poll date from June to November as reported in “EC mulling over Nov poll date” (THT, 3 April, Page 1)

All the senior leaders had, until a few days ago, been saying that the next CA election would be held in first week of Asad (i.e late June). Now, they have started changing their tune, publicly saying that the November is the right time to hold the polls as reported in “CA polls in November, says UML Chairman” (THT, 3 April, Page 5). However, the people had already envisaged looking closely at the political statements of the senior leaders of four major political forces. Their public remarks that the CA election would be held in the first week of Asad were a ploy designed to calm down the public anger over their irresponsible and insensible political acts of killing the first CA assembly without completing the people’s mandate.

The November election seems all the more difficult to hold if the Interim Election Council (IEC) fails to bring the agitating parties led by CPN-Maoist on board.

Rai Biren Bangdel
Maharajgunj, Kathmandu   

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