Kathmandu. KATHMANDU — The office-bearers of the Election Commission (EC) held a meeting with Prime Minister Sushila Karki today regarding the preparations for the upcoming elections.

During the meeting held at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers at Singha Durbar, Acting Chief Election Commissioner Ram Prasad Bhandari and other office-bearers discussed on the issues related to amendment of laws, election management and resource mobilization in the context of the dissolution of the House of Representatives and the election scheduled for March 4.

Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Anil Kumar Sinha, who was also present in the meeting, said that the discussion was held on the need of making preparations for the elections and identifying and addressing the obstacles in course of the preparations.

EC Spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai said preliminary talks were held for effective coordination for the election and continuous discussions would be held with the government regarding the challenges coming in the future. He also said that the government and the EC were clear that the responsibility of the election should be fully completed and the EC was committed to holding the election in a free, fair and economical manner.

The EC has been urging the government to ensure necessary resources including amendment to the Voters’ List Act-2073 BS to hold the election to the House of Representatives on the slated date. Currently, there are 18,168,230 voters above 18 years of age as of November 30.

Earlier, on September 2, the NHRC had held discussion with Home Minister Om Prakash Aryal. As the date for the by-election has been postponed since June 29, legal arrangements should be made to open the voters’ name collection after the announcement of the date for the mid-term election. The Commission and the government held discussions to amend the law through an ordinance to amend the provision of sub-section 2 of Section 4 of the Act.

The EC has consulted with legal experts after Home Minister Aryal urged the government to consider ways to provide voting rights to Nepalis living abroad as per the Supreme Court’s order.

The interim government formed under the leadership of former Chief Justice Karki has already announced elections for March 4.