He said the government is focused on its main objective of holding election by mid-December and that the poll date would be announced soon.[break]
“We want to fix the date only after making certain that we can conduct the polls on the scheduled time and that polls would not have to be deferred,” Regmi told a delegation of the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) at the prime minister´s office in Singha Durbar on Thursday.
Regmi and ministers of the present government have been reiterating for a couple of weeks that they will not announce the poll date in haste. The previous UCPN (Maoist)-led government had announced the poll date twice but had failed to conduct the election.
The FNJ delegation had urged the government to fix the poll date and create election environment across the country. “We told the government head that he should make the public feel that the government is serious about holding elections,” FNJ Chairman Shiva Gaule, who led the delegation, told Republica.
According to him, Regmi said the government would fix the date once some of the procedural works, including issuance of election-related ordinances, are completed.
FNJ leaders also urged the government to make an arrangement for media persons to be allowed to vote from places where they are based. While security personnel and civil servants are allowed to cast votes from the place where they are based, journalists do not have the privilege.
FNJ members made the demand as journalists need to work even on the poll day and it is not possible for most of them to reach their home town or villages to cast votes.
“He [Regmi] was positive about our demand and he has assured us that an arrangement would be made for media persons,” said Gaule. Regmi had said that he would seriously talk to the Election Commission and other authorities to make such an arrangement.
In the previous CA election, security personnel and civil servants had cast their votes under the proportional representation system.
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