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The ruling coalition has decided to immediately scrap the alliances forged with other parties.

A meeting chaired by Prime Minister and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba on Friday also decided to immediately withdraw the candidacies registered from the ruling coalition against the agreement.

“The alliance has decided to immediately withdraw the nominations filed from the ruling coalition against the agreement in the mayoral and deputy mayoral posts of six metropolitan cities and 11 sub-metropolitan cities,” read a statement issued after the meeting.

The meeting has also decided that the concerned parties will immediately take action against the rebel candidates if they refused to withdraw from electoral race.

The Election Commission (EC) has decided to write to all local levels through the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration seeking approval for use of the physical infrastructures and their premises from May 11-13 for the voting purpose during the time of the local level elections.

The physical infrastructures include public schools, ward offices, health posts and others.

At a news conference on Thursday, the EC said it had decided to write to the federal government through the Chief Secretary to make arrangements for teaching students in an alternative way as the schools with voting centres and polling stations there should be used for three days from May 11-13 for running voting and election-related managerial tasks.

Issuing a statement, Surya Prasad Aryal, spokesperson at the Election Commission, said that the Chief Secretary would write a letter to the government seeking a nationwide public holiday on May 13 on the day of the local level elections.

Likewise, the EC said a total of 153,002 candidates had filed their nominations in different posts in the local level elections as per the data entry made till 3:30 pm Thursday.

It is said 3,510 nominations were received for mayor, 3,387 for chairperson, 2,168 for deputy mayor and 2,401 for vice-chair.

Likewise, 35,353 nominations were filed for the post of ward chair.

Till Thursday, the EC said more than 17.77 million ballot papers for 72 districts have been printed and 5.18 million ballot papers for 33 districts have been transported. 

The Nepali Congress has warned of taking stringent action against the leaders and cadres who have filed their independent candidacies against the official candidates of the party in the local level elections slated for May 13.

Issuing a statement on Friday, party Chief Secretary Krishna Prasad Paudel directed the rebel candidates to the withdraw from the local elections race and support the official candidates of the party.  

He warned of removing candidates, proposers and supporters from the general membership if nominations are not withdrawn within the given timeframe.

The party has given time till 5 pm today, the deadline set by the Election Commission, to withdraw rebel candidacies.

The party issued such a statement after the leaders and cadres filed independent candidacies against the official candidates in various municipalities and rural municipalities.

Meanwhile, the ruling coalition is holding a meeting at Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s official residence in Baluwatar to discuss the rebel candidacies.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Khadka and Deputy Vice President of Millennium Challenge Corporation Jonathan Brooks held a meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday.

During the meeting, the duo discussed the implementation of MCC projects in Nepal, including their economic benefits, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

The Parliament of Nepal ratified the Millennium Challenge Corporation compact with interpretative declaration on February 27 after years of delay.