Finance Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat on Tuesday said the government will not implement its earlier decision to dissolve district election offices.

Speaking at the meeting of the House of Representatives following obstruction by the CPN-UML and the Rastriya Swatantra Party, minister Mahat said the offices will operate the way they are currently running.

Earlier today, the CPN-UML and the Rastriya Swatantra Party briefly obstructed the meeting of the Lower House, protesting against a provision in the budget to dissolve district election offices.

The government, through its budget for the fiscal year 2023-2024, had announced that the district election offices would be dissolved and the election-related work would be conducted by a small unit at the respective district administration offices.

Finance Minister Mahat said the decision will be revoked and tried to assure the lawmakers that the government would not compromise on free and fair elections.

“The district election offices will not be scrapped. The offices will operate in the way the Election Commission wants,” said Mahat.

He vowed that the government would not interfere with the works of the Election Commission.