Nepal's poll chief urges consensus for elections

The Chief Election Commissioner of Nepal today said that elections to the Constituent Assembly should be conducted on the basis of consensus among all political parties.
CEC Neel Kantha Upreti said that the government is preparing grounds to announce the date for election soon, and urged all political parties to take part in the elections with a view to drafting a new constitution.
Speaking at an interaction with stakeholders organised by Election Commission in Baglung district in western Nepal today, he said there was no alternative but to go for election for resolving all problems of the nation.
The Chief Election Commissioner said that the task still remains to resolve differences among parties regarding the election.

"There is dissatisfaction in some quarters but there is no alternative to going for polls, in order to rescue the country from the political and constitutional crisis," he said.
Upreti added all should participate in the election for institutionalising democracy and republic system in the country.

He said that declaration of election dates should not be delayed as electoral laws are coming soon, but the country is already headed for election.
Nepal's political parties have now tentatively agreed to conduct polls in November this year.
Voters' lists of a total of 11.3 million people with photographs have been collected by the EC so far and will be concluded within mid-June, said Upreti.

After the dissolution of the constituent assembly in May last year, Nepal had plunged into serious political and constitutional crisis as parties failed to agree on a constitution.
The political deadlock was broken in March with Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi's appointment as the country's new Prime Minister to head an interim government that will hold elections to the 601-member constituent assembly.