The government has announced local level elections for May 13 in one phase as per the recommendation of the Election Commission.

The decision was taken by a regular Cabinet meeting held on Monday.

“Today’s Cabinet meeting decided to hold the local level polls on May 13 in one phase throughout the country,” said Gyanendra Bahadur Karki, minister for communication and government spokesperson, after the meeting.

Before the Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and some ministers had held a discussion with Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Thapaliya and election commissioners and asked whether the Election Commission can hold the elections on May 13.

Then the team of the Election Commission informed the prime minister that they were ready to hold the elections on May 13 and that they are prepared, sources said.

“Earlier today, we recommended that the government hold the local level polls on May 13 so that local governments won’t remain vacant even for a single day,” Thapaliya told the Post.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Election Commission authorities had recommended Prime Minister Deuba to hold the local polls on May 18.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had agreed to hold the local polls on the commission-proposed date.

The commission had earlier proposed April 27 and May 5 if local polls were to be held in two phases.

But the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Chair) suddenly muddied the waters by proposing parliamentary elections in April-May instead of local polls, citing some constitutional provisions.