In the run-up to the local body elections scheduled for May 14, the Nepalese government, on Friday, announced that the Himalayan nation will have a total of 744 units for the election.

The units include four metropolitan cities, 13 sub-metropolitan cities, 246 municipal and 481 village councils.

Addressing media, newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Federal Affairs Kamal Thapa announced that the new local level structure has come into effect from Friday in line with the constitutional provisions.

As per the Nepal Gazette, there will be 6,680 wards at the local level.

Earlier, Nepal had 3,157 village development committees and 217 municipalities across the country.

Thapa vowed to hold the local body elections on the stipulated date at any cost.

"As per the new local local level structure there will be a total of 744 local units across the country. This is a very good news for the country indeed. Our first priority will be holding the local body elections on the slated date," he said, adding that the government will do its best to bring the agitating Madhes-based parties on board the election process.

Nepal will be holding the local body elections after a hiatus of 20 years, which was emerged from a decade-long armed conflict in 2006, which brought the end of the 240-year-old Hindu monarchy and transformed it into a secular republic.

As per the mandatory constitutional provisions, Nepal has to hold the local body elections, provincial and then national elections within January 2018.

The local body elections slated in the second week of May will pay way for the country for holding the two crucial elections.

Thapa, who is also the chairman of ruling Rashtriya Prajatantra Party, said that the government will hold the local body elections as far as possible on the announced date taking consensus of the agitating Madhes-based parties, who have been protesting against the Constitution promulgated in September 2015.

On February 20, a Cabinet meeting of the government had set the date for holding the local body elections on May 14.

If things go as planned, Nepal will hold the local body elections after a hiatus of 19 years.

The local body elections should have been held in every five years but due to political instability, have been halted since May 1997.

With the absence of local elections, corruption has been rampant and people are suffering from various local level problems across the country, Kathmandu-based political observers said.

Source: Xinhua