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Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya has said the election to the House of Representatives and Province Assembly have contributed to institutionalize democracy. Inaugurating the Bagmati Province level election review program at Dolakha today, he said the review program will provide guidance as to making the elections more systematic in the coming days. The Chief Election Commissioner stressed that election is won on the basis of principles, integrity and ideology. "Suggestions were collected through consultations at the rural municipality level for making the voter list unblemished. We believe that the voter roll was flawless," he said, adding that if there are any errors in the voter list, you yourself are responsible for that. “I do not believe in the conjectures that the names of dead people were included in the voter list and votes were cast in their names in Dolakha. If that is the case, please explain how it happened and express the reality here”, CEC Thapaliya said on the occasion. Election Commission Under Secretary Kamal Gyawali had made a presentation on the election-related data, good practices, problems and challenges during the November 20 election. The Chief Election Officer, the Chief District Officer, chiefs of the district-based security bodies and the stakeholders were present in the review program. Group discussions will be held on voter lists, the voting process, human resources, election materials management, monitoring, election laws, monitoring of social sites, voter education, election observation, information technology use, gender inclusion, among other topics.

Newly appointed Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Chen Song arrived in Nepal on Sunday. Acting Ambassador to Nepal Wang Xin among others officials of the Chinese Embassy welcomed him at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA). The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China appointed Chen Song as the new ambassador to Nepal after Hou Yanqi returned to China after completing her four-year tenure in October. He is known as the expert on Asian affairs. Chen Song is the deputy director general at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is considered to be an expert on Nepal affairs. That is why Beijing appointed Chen Song as the Chinese Ambassador to Nepal among the five deputy director generals who are experts on Nepal affairs. Ambassador Chen Song came to Nepal around two weeks later than the scheduled date due to his health problems. He was scheduled to come to Nepal on December 27. According to an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he will stay in quarantine for some days.  

The draft of the Common Minimum Program of the government has been prepared. A meeting of the task force held on Friday has decided to table the draft in the meeting of the senior leaders to be held on Saturday, Rastriya Swatantra Party spokesperson Mukul Dhakal said. Emerging from the meeting of the task force held in Singhadurbar today, he said, “The task force has prepared the draft. Basically, issues of development are included in the Common Minimum Program. Likewise, the draft has given priority to good governance.” The Common Minimum Program includes programs such as corruption control, health education, service delivery and sanitation among others. Good governance, protection of nationality, improvement of the economy, prosperity and completion of the peace process are included in the priority program of the government. The task force was formed under the headship of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel. Barshaman Pun of the CPN (Maoist Center), Mukul Dhakal of the Rastriya Swatantra Party, Dhawal Shumsher Rana of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party and Rakan Chemjong are the members of the task force.    

Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel and US Ambassador to Nepal Dean R Thompson held a meeting on Friday. During the meeting held at Singhadurbar, the duo discussed contemporary political issues. It has been learnt that Minister Poudel and Ambassador Thompson also talked about the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) project. Saying that Nepal and the US have a strong relationship, Ambassador Thompson expressed his belief that the relation will be strengthened further in the coming days.