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Nepal poll put off indefinitely
Bishnu Budhathoki writes from Kathmandu

Finally, Nepal’s Election Commission (EC) has been forced to cancel the entire election schedule as the government asked it to suspend its all activities related to conduct of the Constituent Assembly (CA) poll.

Issuing a press statement at around 10 am on Friday, just a few seconds before it was supposed to start collecting nomination for proportional representation seats for November 22 election, the commission said although the EC was technically prepared to hold the election on stipulated timeframe it has been forced to cancel all pre-declared election schedule as per the government’s request to do so.

“Accepting the constitutional provision that the mere desire of the EC alone doesn’t suffice to hold the elections, the EC cancels all activities related to election-related programmes,” said EC spokesperson Laxman Bhattarai. As per Article 63 (2) of the interim constitution of Nepal, the government has to decide the date to conduct the election.

At around 9.45 am, the government faxed the cabinet decision requesting the EC to cancel its all programmes, including today’s pre-scheduled nomination process for CA poll.

Earlier, as a meeting of seven-party alliance leaders held at Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s official residence in Baluwatar failed to reach a consensus as the Maoist stuck to its two of the Maoists’ 22-preconditions for the CA poll - declaring Nepal a republic through interim parliament and adopting full proportional electoral system.

Hereafter, an emergency cabinet meeting decided to request the EC to suspend its all schedules. “Since the aforesaid issues have to be settled down through the special session of the interim Parliament before going for election, the government decides to request the EC to suspend its schedules,” the letter said.

The government has not mentioned the new date for elections. However, it said the new date would be announced immediately after forging a consensus among the seven-party alliance to reach a logical end of the ongoing peace process. Meanwhile, the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist on Friday said the party has agreed to suspend the November 22 elections to maintain the seven-party unity and continue peace process.

Issuing a press release today, the CPN-M said the party agreed to suspend the elections unless a decision is taken through the special House session regarding declaring the country a republic and adopting full proportion electoral system. It is the third time that the elections have been postponed.

However, three major parties in the alliance-CPN-UML, People’s Front Nepal and Nepal Workers’ and Peasants Party have written notes of dissent on the agreement.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Koirala summoned a special session of the interim parliament on October 11 at 4 pm. Koirala decided to call the session after consultation with Speaker Subas Nembang. Last Sunday, 87 lawmakers, including 84 Maoist MPs, had registered a motion at the PM arguing that it was needed to declare Nepal a republic and opt full proportional electoral system before going for November 22 elections.

US, EU express concern

Expressing serious concern over the decision to cancel November 22 elections, the United States and the European Union have said that they were disappointed with the government decision.

Issuing separate statements, both diplomatic missions in Nepal said the people of Nepal have been denied a timely opportunity to elect their representatives and decide the framework for their future government.