KATHMANDU, March 25: Paving the way for full-fledged preparations for fresh elections, President Ram Baran Yadav finally made appointments at the Election Commission (EC), the constitutional body responsible for holding elections in the country.
The president on Sunday afternoon appointed Neel Kantha Uprety as the chief election commissioner and Dolakh Bahadur Gurung, Ayodhi Prasad Yadav, Rambhakta PB Thakur and Ila Sharma as commissioners of the EC as per the recommendation made by the Constitutional Council.[break]
Officiating Chief Justice Damodar Prasad Sharma administered the oath of office and secrecy to Uprety amid a function organized at the president´s office at Sheetal Niwas and Uprety administered the oath of office and secrecy to the four commissioners in the presence of the president.
Uprety and Gurung had retired as acting chief election commissioners while Yadav had retired as commissioner.
Thakur is former chief of protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has also served as Nepali ambassador to Egypt. Sharma is former journalist and has also worked as consultant for UNDP projects on trade law issues after Nepal joined the World Trade Organization.
The chief commissioner and commissioners assumed their posts after taking the oath of office and secrecy.
Talking to media persons after assuming his post, Uprety said that they will not leave no stone unturned in order to hold the CA polls within the stipulated deadline. “We know the goal [is to conduct CA polls], but there are lots of challenges ahead,” Uprety added.
The major four political entities -- UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML and United Democratic Madhesi Front -- have agreed to hold fresh polls by June 21. They have also decided that the Interim Election Council will set a new date for CA polls by December 15 if holding polls in June becomes impossible.
The government has said that it will announce date for conducting polls after consulting with the EC.
“We will take decision on poll date after the EC makes recommendations after studying the existing legal provisions and the practical aspect,” said Information and Communications Minister Madhav Poudel, who is also spokesperson of the Interim Election Council.
The president made the appointments after the Constitutional Council on Saturday responded to a letter sent by him to Interim Election Council Chairman Khil Raj Regmi in which the president had questioned if it would be constitutional to re-appoint Uprety, Gurung and Yadav in the EC. In his letter, President Yadav had asked Regmi whether the reappointments attract Clause 3 and 7 of the Article 128 of the Interim Constitution.
Clause 3 of the Article 128 of the Interim Constitution states that the term of office of the Chief Election Commissioner and other election commissioners shall be six years from the date of appointment while Clause 7 of the same Article states that a person once appointed as the Chief Election Commissioner or the Election Commissioner shall not be eligible for appointment in other government services.
The EC had remained without any commissioners following resignation of then Chief Election Commissioner Bhoj Raj Pokhrel and retirement of Uprety, Gurung, Yadav and Usha Nepal.
EC officials had been stating that the constitutional body cannot make all preparations for the fresh polls as it could not take policy decisions in the absence of the chief election commissioner and commissioners.
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