Election of village and municipal executives within 15 days

By A Staff Reporter Kathmandu, May 21: The election of the village or municipal executives will be held within 15 days of receiving the final result of the local level elections, as per the constitutional provision. The village and municipal executive is the official body exercising executive power at the local level.

There is an arrangement for the elected chief, deputy chief, ward chairperson and ward member voters within the municipality for the executive election. According to the Article 125 (4), the members of the Village Executive shall also include four women members elected by the members of the village assembly from amongst themselves and two members elected by the village assembly from the Dalit or minority communities, no later than fifteen days after the final results of the election of the village assembly under Article 222.

The village executive also consists of one vice chairperson, ward chairperson elected from each ward. 

The elected chief, deputy chief, ward chairperson and ward member of the municipalities are the voters for the election of executive. 

Senior Advocate Dr. Chandrakant Gyawali said that the current local level election was for the municipal assembly and there was a constitutional provision that village and municipal executive elections should be held within 15 days of receiving the final result of the assembly election.

The constitution states that the executive should be formed by electing two people in the village executive and three people in the municipal executive, said Gyawali. 

According to her, the office of the election officer in each municipality is responsible for conducting the election of the village and municipal executive.

“Not all the members of the executive are the same in the municipality. As the number of wards in the municipality is different, so is the number of representatives in the executive,” she added. 

The executive of a municipality consisting of seven wards has one chief and one deputy chief, seven elected ward chairpersons of each of the seven wards and the chief administrative officer of the local level as a member-secretary of the executive.

As per the rules approved by the village executive and the municipal executive, the work of the village executive or the municipal executive will be divided and the work will be performed.

The Local Government Operation Act has made provision for the head of local executive, village and municipal assembly to be the same person as the chairperson of the village municipality and the head of the municipality.

As the local level executive is the body exercising executive power, it is the local level cabinet. Like in federal system, the decision made by the local level executive should be published in the local gazette and implemented by the municipality.