Nepal’s Election Commission said Monday it lacked a legal framework to hold elections promised for November — threatening a long delay that could push the country deeper into political turmoil. “In a situation of constitutional and legal ambiguity, it will be difficult for us to proceed,” commission spokesman Sharada Prasad Trital said in a statement. “Therefore, we have decided to inform the government that it is not possible to hold elections… on November 22,” Trital said.
Nepal has been run by a caretaker Maoist government since the collapse in May of an interim parliament, or Constituent Assembly, which had failed in its main task of drawing up a new constitution following a 10-year civil war that ended in 2006. Maoist Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai had called for the polls in November, but the commission insisted that the lack of a workable constitution meant there were no legal provisions for holding an election.
Full Article: AFP: Nepal election commission rules out November polls.
