Nepal’s communication minister pledges CA election date this week
KATHMANDU: Nepal’s newly appointed minister has assured to announce fresh date for Constituent Assembly elections within this week.
The new Minister, Madhav Paudel, a former senior bureaucrat, said that the government will come up with a date after it finalizes appointments to the Election Commission.by the end of this week.
Speaking at an interaction program organized by Reporters Club Nepal on Wednesday, he said “as the Constitutional Council has been formed, its forthcoming meetings will finalize appointments at the Election Commission and fix a date for the new CA elections.”
He clarified that the incumbent interim government was not in mood to extend its tenure by making delays in appointment while speaking at the program presided by the Club’s president Rishi Dhamala.
“We are eager to conclude the CA elections at the earliest and handover the government to political parties,” Paudel said on the occasion as an attempt to dispel doubts that the technocrat government was willing to maintain power in its hand.
Expressing discontent to comments that criticize the government to be partyless, he claimed that it is formed by political parties as a medium to resolve political crisis and claimed that it was the outcome of complicated politics.
He denied any differences between high level political mechanism and the cabinet as described by some media reports recently and claimed that the government was moving ahead as suggested by the political steering committee coordinated by UCPN Maoist Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal.
Paudel however urged for not expecting much from the government stating that the incumbent government’s sole purpose was hold fair CA elections.
In a different context, he clarified that the constitutional councle did not have any plans, so far, to appoint Lokman Singh Karki as commissioner of Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).
On the occasion, Mr. Dhamala felicitated the new minister and wished him success for his tenure. In response the Minister he was delighted for being at the Club.
