Nepali Constitutional Council ( CC) has recommended names for appointment as Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and two Election Commissioners to expedite preparations for the Constituent Assembly elections to be held in mid-June, 2007.

According to a leading news media group's website, eKantipur. com Saturday's report, the CC meeting held in Kathmandu Friday afternoon, recommended former secretary Bhojraj Pokharel for the post of CEC.

Likewise, the CC recommended former joint-secretary Usha Nepal and election expert Neel Kantha Uprety for appointment as Election Commissioners.

The summit talks held between the Seven-Party Alliance government and guerrilla leaders on Oct. 10 decided to hold the Constituent Assembly elections by mid-June, 2007, and asked the government to appoint the top officials at the Election Committee (EC).

In November 2003, the then CC had also recommended 55-year old Pokharel to the post of CEC but the king had rejected the CC's recommendation and picked Keshav Raj Rajbhandari instead.

Uprety has served as an advisor at the EC since 1992. He played a key role in computerizing the voters data base. Uprety, 56, also monitored presidential and parliamentary elections in Afghanistan in 2004 and 2005 as the United Nations' senior coordinator.

The country's first woman joint-secretary and chief district officer, Nepal, 63, is also the first woman to become an election commissioner.

The names will now be cleared by the cabinet and sent to parliament for hearings at the Parliamentary Special Hearings Committee as per the newly promulgated Parliam-entary Regulations 2006.

The posts of CCE and Election Commissioners have been vacant since July 9, as then CEC Keshav Raj Rajbhandari and other Election Commissioners resigned from their posts following tremendous pressure from the political parties which charged them with assisting the royal government by holding sham municipal elections, the report said.

The Constituent Assembly is an elected body, like parliament, of elected people's representatives to formulate the new constitution.

Source: Xinhua