Nepal to hold parliamentary polls on November 26

Kathmandu: Nepal will hold the Provincial and Federal House of Representatives elections on November 26, a government spokesman announced here on Monday.

A cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, which was held in the Nepali capital Kathmandu, decided to hold the two elections in a single phase, government spokesman Mohan Bahadur Basnet told the media.

"The government will write to the Election Commission soon about its decision to hold the Provincial and Federal House of Representatives elections on November 26," Basnet, who is also the minister of Information and Communications, said.

The decision to hold the elections came a week after the Madhes-based ethnic parties agreed to participate in these crucial elections during talks with the government even without amendments in the new constitution.

The Madhes-based parties have put off their protests. They had been agitated since the promulgation of a new constitution, demanding changes in the demarcation of the provincial boundaries, among other things.

Nepal has already held two rounds of local body elections on May 14 and June 28 this year in six provinces, after a hiatus of two decades as a major step to implement its landmark constitution adopted in 2015.