Zeljana Zovko hails Nepal's effort to hold back-to-back elections

Kathmandu [Nepal], November 9 (ANI): The Chief Observer of the European Union Election Observation Mission, Zeljana Zovko, has hailed Nepal's effort to hold back to back elections in the country.

Nepal is all set to hold the elections for the Parliament and the Provincial Council, shortly after holding the local polls.

Stating the challenges at the time of commencement of elections 'a universal phenomenon', Zovko said Nepal could not be exempted from it, but the government and the election commission's efforts have resolved it.

"Every election has their own challenges and the authorities that are preparing the elections have been facing lots of challenges and Nepal is not exempted from that," Zovko said, in an interview with ANI.

"Especially considering the fact that the local elections were held recently in September, I don't see any problem in the government's efforts," she added.

The EU Election Observation Mission has a core team of 10 election analysts based in Kathmandu. The mission has also deployed a total of 38 long term observers (LTOs) to different parts of Nepal, which have been assigned the tasks of observing the ongoing preparations and other logistic tasks.

Apart from the observers, additional short term observers are also set to be deployed, which the organisation has claimed that it will be over 100 in number. The total cost for the mission is estimated to 3.5 million Euros, the mission stated.

Nepal will go to polls on November 26 and December 7 to elect a total of 825 representatives in the Parliament and the Provincial Council.

Nepal has the constitutional deadline of January 21, 2018 to complete the election of local bodies, province and parliament which it promulgated on 2015.

The final round of local elections was held in September 2017. (ANI)