Nepal caretaker PM urges poll panel to expedite preparations for elections

With growing rage against the dissolution of the lower house of Nepal Parliament, caretaker Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli met Chief Election Commissioner on Tuesday, urging him to expedite preparations for the elections slated for April 30 and May 10 this year.

Oli on Tuesday reached the office of the electoral body to take an update about the preparations for the elections.

He met Chief Election Commissioner and other officials.

Oli's visit to the election commission comes after a meeting of Council of Ministers decided to hold the first phase of the mid-term elections in 40 districts of Province 2 and Gandaki, Karnali, and Lumbini provinces on April 30 and in 37 districts of Bagmati, Sudurpaschim and Province 1 on May 10 in the second phase.

Elected after a landslide victory in the 2017 elections, KP Sharma Oli from the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) became the first Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Nepal.

The NCP was formed after the amalgamation of two communist parties in the Himalayan Nation, but it is headed for a split after more than two years.

A faction under the leadership of former Prime Ministers Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal has practically broken off from the Oli alliance but has been denied recognition from the Electoral Body.