Nepal Parliament endorses bill on local elections

The Nepalese Parliament today endorsed a bill on holding local body elections through majority votes though the agitating Madhesi parties have been pressing the government to fulfil their demands before holding the polls.
With the endorsement of the bill, the House has passed all four bills related to local level elections as provisioned by the Constitution.
The endorsement has paved way for the government to fix date for the local level elections which had been put off for more than one and a half decade.
Earlier, the Parliament had endorsed three bills related to conducting elections in the country - bill relating to the election commission's duty and responsibilities 2073, bill relating to voter's list and election offence and punishment bill.

According to the constitutional provision, the government is mandated to hold all three-tier elections - general election, provincial election and local body election - within a year.
Madhesi parties had been pressing the government to fulfil their demands through constitution amendments before holding the polls.

The major demands of the Madhesi parties include redrawing the provincial boundary and citizenship issues.
Madhesis, mostly of Indian-origin, had launched a six-month-long agitation during KP Sharma Oli's premiership, from September 2015 to February last year, in which more than 50 people were killed.
The agitation had also crippled the landlocked country's economy as supplies from India were blocked.