Nepal poll panel decides to print separate ballot papers

The Election Commission (EC) of Nepal yesterday decided to print separate ballot papers for first-past-the-post elections of the House of Representatives and State Assemblies slated for November 26 and December 7 respectively.The EC was preparing to print a single ballot paper for the House of Representatives and State Assemblies elections.Earlier, Rastriya Janata Party Nepal leader Sarbendra Sukhla had filed a writ petition against EC’s decision of printing a single ballot paper for elections to the House of Representatives and State Assemblies at the Supreme Court.Despite changes in EC’s decision of printing separate ballot papers yesterday, it has clarified that the upcoming elections will be held on stipulated dates.As per the constitutional requirement, all level of elections should be held by January 21 for the implementation of constitutionand federalism in the country.Left alliance fails to finalise seat sharing: Top leaders of the left alliance, comprising the CPN-UML and the CPN-Maoist Centre, held discussion on the division of first-past-the-post (FPTP) provincial and parliamentary constituencies of 45 districts but failed to reach a conclusion yesterday.The alliance has finalised FPTP seats division among them for the 32 district where the first phase of provincial and parliamentary polls will be held on November 26 but has failed to allocate FPTP seats in a few districts out of 45 districts where the second phase of provincial and parliamentary polls will be held on December 7.Candidates wishing to contest the second phase of parliamentary and provincial polls will have to file their nomination papers on November 2.Alliance leaders said it would be easy for them to manage dissatisfied candidates as they would have five-day time. They said they had faced difficulty in managing the dissatisfied candidates during the nomination for the first phase of provincial and parliamentary polls.UML chair K P Sharma Oli, senior leaders Madhav Kumar Nepal,Jhala Nath Khanal, Bamdev Gautam, Ishwar Pokharel,Surendra Pandey, Shankar Pokharel and CPN-MC chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal, senior leaders Narayan Kaji Shrestha, Ram Bahadur Thapa, Barshaman Pun and Matrika Yadav were present in the meeting.