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Nepali Congress has finalized candidates in all the municipalities of Kathmandu and Bhaktapur Metropolitan Cities.

The Bagmati Province Parliamentary Committee, Kathmandu picked Upendra Karki as the mayoral candidate of Kageshwori Manohara Municipality. 

Similarly, Deepak Risal and Shanti Nepal have been chosen as the candidates for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor respectively of Gokarneshwor Municipality.

The party had decided to pick Ghanshyam Giri and Yamunadevi Shrestha as the mayoral and deputy candidates of Chandragiri Municipality.

Krishna Hari Maharjan and Srijana Burlakoti have been picked as the candidates for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor respectively of Tarkeshwor Minicipality.

Mohan Basnet and Basanti Tamang have been picked as the mayoral and deputy mayoral  candidates of Dakshinkali Municipality.

Similarly, Mohan Bahadur Basnet and Kalyani Khadgi have been chosen as the candidates for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor of Nagarjun Municipality and Binod Chalise has been picked as the mayoral candidate of Budhanilkantha.

Likewise, Om Karki and Samita Shrestha have been nominated as the candidates for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor of Shankarapur Municipality, Chief Secretary of Bagmati Province Office Raju Nepal said.

Meanwhile, Surendra Shrestha has been chosen as the mayoral candidate of Madhyapur Thimi, Bhaktapur and Nisan Dangol as the mayoral candidate of Surya Binayak Municipality.

Jeevan Chhetri has been picked as the mayoral candidate of Changunarayan Municipality and Ram Kasula as the mayoral candidate of Bhaktapur Municipality.

The Nepali Congress has decided to filed Chiribabu Maharjan as its mayoral candidate in Lalitpur Metropolitan City.

Maharjan is the incumbent mayor of Lalitpur.

Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba this morning has decided to field Maharjan as the party's mayoral candidate in Lalitpur Metropolitan City.

The CPN (Unified Socialist) has finalized the candidates for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor of various metropolis and sub-metropolis.

The 23rd meeting of the Central Secretariat held on Monday morning finalized the names of candidates for the local level elections slated for May 13.

According to party General Secretary Beduram Bhusal, Dhanraj Acharya has been chosen to contest for the post of mayor in Pokhara Metropolitan City and Mina Lama has been nominated to contest the post of mayor in Hetauda Sub-Metropolitan City.

Likewise, Rameshwor Shrestha has been chosen to contest for the post of deputy mayor in Kathmandu Metropolitan City and Keshav Kumar Bista in Itahari Sub-Metropolitan City.

Similarly, Chin Bahadur Gurung and Jog Bahadur Magar have been nominated to contest for the post of deputy mayor in Butwal and Tulsipur Sub-Metropolitan Cities.

The ruling coalition has forged electoral alliances in metropolis and sub-metropolis for the local elections.

Before the caveats, it is only fair to acknowledge the scale of President Macron's achievement.

Not enough is being made of this, but this is the first time ever that a governing president of the Fifth Republic has been re-elected.

Yes, presidents have retained the Elysée before. But both François Mitterrand in 1988 and Jacques Chirac in 2002 were effectively in opposition in the period running up to the vote, BBC reported.

In both cases, actual government was - as a result of mid-term parliamentary elections - in the hands of the president's foes. Though in office, Mitterrand and Chirac were politically impotent - but that helped when the wheel turned again and they found themselves back in favour.

As for Charles de Gaulle's victory in 1965, he'd never been elected by the people in the first place.

So, Emmanuel Macron is the first president in modern times who, after running every aspect of foreign and domestic policy for a full term, has once again won the trust of the people.

When you consider France's longstanding relationship with government - which is essentially to cheer 'em in, then chuck 'em out at the first opportunity - this is no mean feat.

He has done it by two methods, the first of which bodes well for the next five years, the second less so, according to BBC.

The results suggest that hidden beneath the seething mass of social media caricatures - the arrogant Parisian rich, the angry provincial mob - there are millions of French people of the middling type who feel that Emmanuel Macron has not been at all a bad president.

These people appreciate that unemployment is no longer a political issue, largely because of Macron's reforms. They think his handling of Covid was competent, and they agree that pushing back the age of retirement is inevitable.

They also discern a leader who can more than hold his own on the international stage. They are glad there is someone at the Elysée with the stature to talk straight with Putin, even if it proved a fruitless endeavour.

And they reckon that under Macron France can aspire to take the lead in Europe, at a time when his vision of greater military and economic autonomy for the EU is looking more and more relevant. The contrast on this front with Marine Le Pen could not have been starker, BBC reported.

These people may not particularly like Emmanuel Macron - he's too different - but enough have come to respect him.

However, the second aspect of the Macron methodology is more problematic - and this is where the caveats come in. 

Five years ago, Macron made a brilliant gamble about the state of modern politics. 

By straddling the centre, he destroyed the old pairing of conservatives and social democrats, and using the powers implicit in De Gaulle's Fifth Republic, he installed a highly personalised and highly concentrated system of government from the Elysée.

Opposition was forced to the "extremes" of left and right, where he trusted they could never really pose a threat. So far he has been proved right, as this election shows, according to BBC.