KATHMANDU, Oct 28: With less than six months remaining for the local elections, the government has registered only three of the nine election-related bills in parliament.

The government has unveiled its plan to hold the local elections in April next year. While the Election Commission has been demanding that all election-related laws should be ready before three months of the election date, the government has yet to enact two bills which are necessary for holding the local-level elections.
 
Local level election bill and bill on electoral crime and punishment are yet to be registered in parliament. The bills related to the political parties, voters list and the Election Commission are under discussion in the state affairs committee of parliament.

However, the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs has claimed that none of the elections will be delayed due to the lack of new laws. Speaking at a press briefing in the ministry on Thursday, Minister Ajay Shankar Nayak said that delay in drafting any law will not affect the constitution implementation process.  “The constitution implementation process is already underway. Constitution amendment is only the contentious issues left to be settled,” said the minister.

Secretary at the Law and Justice Ministry Tek Prasad Dhungana informed that the government is preparing to register local election-related bills in parliament by mid-November. Bills related to the election of the House of Representatives, national assembly and constituency determination are under discussion at cabinet and Ministry of Home Affairs, he informed.

According to the ministry 10 bills related to federal laws have been endorsed from the House paving the way for implementing the new constitution, other 13 are under discussion in parliament and drafts of other 19 federal laws have been prepared so far. “Out of 110 federal laws that are necessary, work is under way on 52,” said Dhungana.
Spokesperson at the ministry Dilli Ghimire said that the ministry has requested the responsible ministry to draft the bills for 22 provincial laws and six local laws. 

 
• election-related bills
 
• parliaments
 
• polls