KATHMANDU, July 16: Under pressure from various interest groups, the government is backtracking on some of its decisions which were considered favorable to the general public. The government was credited for taking some crucial “pro-people decisions” such as ending the transport syndicate and banning the plotting of cultivatable land for the purpose of housing construction.

EC chief: No chance of backtracking

April 13, 2017 02:18 am

KATHMANDU, April 11: Amid growing differences between political parties over conducting the local-level elections on the stipulated date, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Ayodhee Prasad Yadav has said the election body is committed to conducting the elections on May 14 and there's no chance of backtracking.

Bhojraj Pokharel as Chief Election Commissioner successfully conducted the first Constituent Assembly elections in 2008. The now retired civil servant has since closely studied other transitional countries and their electoral systems. He has at times even acted as an interlocutor in the (still ongoing) negotiations over the new constitution in Nepal. Are timely elections still possible? What can Nepal learn from other transitional countries? And what, in his view, are the dangers of putting off important decisions? Biswas Baral and Mahabir Paudyal caught up with him.