As Nepal is gearing up for the election to constituent assembly (CA), the first time in history, the Election Commission (EC) has to face many difficulties in the absence of needed legislations for holding the election by mid- June 2007.

Although the government and the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) (formerly known as guerrillas) have expressed their commitment to hold the CA election by set date, they are yet to finalize the interim constitution, under which other needed laws are to be formulated.

"We need two Acts -- Election Commission Act and Electoral Role Act immediately to carry out our activities legally. But, these Acts can not be formulated without interim constitution," Bhojraj Pokharel, chief election commissioner, told Xinhua.

The first Act gives us mandate to conduct CA election and the second one describes what kind of people can vote in the election, he said, noting the existing EC Act is based on the constitution of 1990, which has no provision on conducting CA election.

However, the political parties'failure to issue an interim constitution on scheduled time is delaying the formulation of needed Acts, he said. Both the government and CPN pledged to issue the new constitution by Nov. 21, which has not been materialized yet.

He said the EC would feel comfortable to carry out its activities if the above two Acts were formulated by mid-December. "We will start preparing voters' list after that," he added.

Pokharel said the EC is now making assessments of required resources to conduct the poll and interacting with all stakeholders including political parties and civil society members on how to successfully conduct the poll.

Source: Xinhua