Nepal politicians warn election likely to be postponed
KATMANDU, Nepal: Upcoming national elections are likely to be postponed in this Himalayan nation, government officials warned Thursday, as leaders of Nepal's ruling parties struggled to end a political stalemate and draw the former Maoist rebels back into the interim government.
Mainstream party officials and the Maoists, who quit the government last month, came to the end of two days of talks Thursday without resolving the crisis that threatens to derail the Nov. 22 elections for the Constituent Assembly, which is to craft a new constitution and chart out Nepal's political future.
The parties and the Maoists agreed to meet again Friday at 7 a.m. — just three hours before the deadline for filing nominations for the assembly elections.
"The chance of an election being held on time is minimal," Ram Chandra Poudel, a top government minister, told reporters after the talks ended. "Without the cooperation of the Maoists, an election is not possible."
Citing the impasse, the Maoists said the vote should be delayed.
"We want the electoral process to be suspended for now," Maoist spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara said.
The Maoists had earlier given the government until midnight Thursday to agree to their demands, including the immediate abolition of the monarchy and procedural changes to the elections. They have threatened to launch widespread street protests if their demands are not met.
While mainstream leaders have said they want the monarchy abolished, disagreement over the procedural issues have kept the two sides at an impasse.
Few, if any, political leaders were optimistic about the talks, which were being held at the heavily guarded official compound of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.
Last week, the Nepal Congress, the country's leading party, announced its support for declaring the country a republic, moving the government closer to abolishing the monarchy that ruled for centuries. The king remains on the throne, but was stripped of nearly all his power last year in the wake of massive street protests.
But the ex-rebels insist the Constituent Assembly elections be based entirely on proportional representation, where voters cast ballots for political parties which in turn appoint members to the assembly.
Earlier this year, they had agreed to a mixed election system, where half the assembly members would be chosen through proportional representation, with the other half directly elected by the public.
Most analysts believe the rebels want a proportional election because they have few leaders with enough stature to earn many votes in a direct election.
The government, though, opposes an election based solely on proportional voting.
Nepal, which came to the brink of chaos last year before the king gave up power, again plunged into political crisis last month after the Maoists' pulled out of the government and announced plans to disrupt the assembly elections.
The Maoists, who fought a decade-long armed insurgency to abolish the monarchy, signed a peace agreement in 2006 and joined the government earlier this year. More than 13,000 people were killed in the fighting.
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