Initial Election Commission (EC) figures suggest a huge voter turnout: 71 percent! But was it a peaceful local election on May 14? In general it was, says the EC in a preliminary status of this first phase of the…
It’s a virtual cliffhanger to follow the drama in the run-up to the local election. The election was recently split into two phases – May 14 and June 14, as opposed to just May 14 – and now the second phase may be in the balance. For reasons never made quite clear to the public, the newly formed six-party…
Cabinet decided on February 2nd to instruct the Election Commission to get things ready for local elections by mid-May. So, it finally announced at least an approximate election date. Will the elections happen for sure, though? Well, it’s hard not to be optimistic. However, there are still hurdles ahead, to say the…
It’s hard to believe but if PM Dahal’s promises and recent actions are anything to go by, local elections might happen as early as in May – 20 years after the last local election was held in Nepal. Dahal just informed Chief Election Commissioner, Yadav, that he plans to announce the election date “in a few days”, and meanwhile the parliamentary State Affairs Committee just passed two election-related bills critical to going ahead with fresh local elections…
The formation of Nepal Reconstruction Agency (NRA) in the fall of 2015 was as political as the creation of many other “high-level” commissions and agencies in Kathmandu. Barely had donors pledged over 4 billion dollars in reconstruction grants and loans before the main parties started to bicker over who was to chair the NRA. The CEO of the new agency would come to manage – together with the Prime Minister – a huge sum of money. Was it to be Nepali Congress’ (NC’s) man, someone closer to the UML, or maybe someone affiliated with the…
Ever tried to contact a ministry by email and never get a reply? Well, many have, and now the chairman of the Local Bodies Restructuring Commission (LBRC) has too. Trying for a second time to write the Ministry of Local Development and Federal Affairs to get data on Ilakas – the areas supposed to form the territorial basis of Nepal’s future local bodies – without getting a reply, the LBRC is about to give up on time frames and deadlines. We can’t set a deadline with such lack of cooperation from the government, says an LBRC…
