Organizing a press conference in the capital on Monday, Chief Election Commissioner Neel Kanth Uprety stressed that the issue of participation by disgruntled parties, including the CPN-Maoist, must be settled before August 16.
This comes at a time when the government is trying to woo the disgruntled parties into joining the election process.
“Everything must be settled within the next four weeks. The commission will enter into another process after August 20,” Uprety said.[break]
He further said that the EC will soon initiate the process of setting up offices for returning officers, candidacy filing and printing ballot papers, among other activities.
The chief election commissioner´s statement come on the day the Interim Election Council began formal talks with the Federal Democratic Forum (FDF), the alliance of eight disgruntled political parties including Madhesi People´s Rights Forum (MPRF) led by Upendra Yadav.
The alliance has demanded that the High Level Political Committee (HLPC) be dissolved, stating that it may influence the crucial election.
FDF has also demanded that Chairman of the Interim Election Council Khil Raj Regmi resign from the post of chief justice and the proportions of those elected under the first-past-the-post and PR systems be decided in line with the proportions at the time of the last CA election in April, 2008.
The 33-party alliance led by the CPN-Maoist is yet to begin formal talks with the Interim Election Council. The CPN-Maoist leadership has been stating that they will not hold talks with the present government if there are any preconditions.
Most constituent parties of the alliance, including CPN-Maoist, have, however, registered at the EC for participation in the polls.
The alliance led by the CPN-Maoist has demanded the Interim Election Council be dissolved, alleging that it is "unconstitutional”. It has also demanded the annulment of the ordinance on removing constitutional difficulties for holding the election.
In a separate context, the chief election commissioner has ruled out the possibility of giving another chance for ´missing voters´ to register in the new electoral roll with photo and biometrics for purposes of the upcoming November election.
“It is next to impossible to give one more time for voter registration as it can affect our calendar,” Uprety maintained.
Some Madhes-based political parties have been demanding that the EC should give some more time for voter registration.
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