Attorney General and the government’s chief legal advisor Prem Bahadur Bista said Monday that the government did not announce the elections to the local bodies as the security situation is not favourable.

Pleading on behalf of the government on the writ petition seeking the extension of the term of local bodies Bista said it would be difficult to hold the local elections when the security situation is posing challenges to hold even the mid term elections to the House of Representatives.

He said as the prevailing situation is not favourable to hold the local elections the government decided to run the local bodies with the help of the government employees deployed in the districts, he said.

Pleading on behalf of the petitioners, former Speaker and senior advocate Daman Nath Dhungana said the term of the local bodies must be extended since they cannot be left without the peoples’ representatives.

Similarly another senior advocate Basudev Dhungana said others cannot be recruited in the posts meant for the local representatives. “No other method of running the local bodies can ever represent the people,” he said. nepalnews.com am July 30