EC working to hold polls: EC

October 19, 2005
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Even as the political parties have been reiterating that they would boycott elections, the Election Commission (EC) Tuesday said it will be working to conduct parliamentary elections once it conducts the same for municipalities.

“We have expressed the commitment to work to hold the elections in tune with the demand of the time,” chief election commissioner Keshav Raj Rajbhandari told reporters at the CPN-UML headquarters where he attended an annual tea party, according to reports.

He informed that EC is shortly sending letters to political parties including the agitating seven political parties to participate in the elections.

Meanwhile, member of the Raj Parishad Standing Committee and former Chief of Army Staff Sachit Shumshere JB Rana has said that the Election Commission should not register the parties which had abolished the provision of Constitutional Monarchy from their statute saying the act was unconstitutional.

He also claimed that the constitution has provided the authority of declaring elections to the King.

Earlier, one of the framers of the present constitution and former Chief Justice Bishwo Nath Upadhaya said that the King did not have the authority for announcing polls in the present circumstance.

Rana said more than 60 percent people will participate in the elections despite the call of the alliance of seven major political parties to boycott the polls and warned the political parties that they will bear loss if they do not participate in the elections.

He said, “I am committed to my stance that the political parties running after the signals of the foreigners should be declared anti-national elements.”

He defended the controversial media ordinance saying that the ordinance was issued to systematize the communication sector.