Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: Acting Chief Election Commissioner Ram Prasad Bhandari has insisted that the House of Representatives elections would be held on the scheduled date of March 5.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Bhandari urged people not to harbour doubts about whether the election would take place. “The Election Commission (EC) has moved far beyond the debate over whether an election will be held. The phrase ‘the election will not be held’ has been removed from our dictionary. The election will take place,” he said. “The EC is moving ahead with integrity and determination for the election. Necessary preparations have been completed.”
Bhandari expressed confidence that the election would be held with broad participation, stating that no political party has announced that it will boycott the polls.
The Acting Chief Election Commission also clarified that there would be no changes to the election schedule, adding that political parties must submit their closed proportional representation lists on Dec 28 and 29.
Regardless of what the EC officials said, there is some hesitancy among the political parties, particularly the CPN-UML and Nepali Congress (NC), regarding the polls. Although CPN-UML has been saying that the current environment is not conducive to the polls, it is busy finalizing the list of candidates for the PR system. The party has filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court demanding the reinstatement of the parliament. While the Nepali Congress (NC) has not explicitly said that the dissolved House should be reinstated, some of its lawmakers have signed a petition demanding parliament reinstatement.
