February 2: The Election Commission has estimated that Rs 12 billion will be required for the local level election that is going to be held in May, 2022. 

Officials of the commission have estimated that the amount would be spent on holding elections in one phase in all 753 local units. According to the commissioners, a lot of budget will be spent on salary, daily allowance, travel expenses and other facilities of the manpower to be deployed for the election. 

In 2074 BS, more than Rs 8 billion was spent for the election held in three phases. About 2 million voters have been added since the 2074 election. Now, expenditure for polling stations and booths, ballot papers, and polling materials etc will be added accordingly in the budget. 

The commission also claimed that the expenditure would also increase as the use of information technology at polling stations should be increased to ensure cleanliness and fairness during election and to control unwanted activities at polling stations.

The election commissioners had also informed Prime Minister Sher during a meeting held on Tuesday that additional expenses would be incurred for health safety standards due to Covid-19. 

After the discussion, it has been agreed to hold the local level election in a single phase on May 18, 2022.  

Election Commission spokesperson Shaligram Poudel said that Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has promised to complete the necessary process and move ahead with the preparations for holding the election on the scheduled date. 

Earlier, the commission had suggested the government to hold local level elections in one phase on April 27 and in two phases on April 27 and May 5. However, due to differences within the ruling coalition, the government was unable to set a date for local elections. 

A meeting of the ruling coalition held last Saturday had agreed to hold local elections in May by amending the law. But PM Dueba called the commissioners for discussion after agreeing to hold local elections within the deadline without amending the law. 

The tenure of people's representatives at the local level is expiring on May 19. It seems that the date of the election has been fixed as per the legal obligation to hold the local level election before the deadline.