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Maoists want Nepal polls deferred again

By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS

Kathmandu : With less than three months left for the critical constituent assembly election, Nepal’s Maoist guerrillas Friday proposed that the polls be postponed.

Maoist supremo Prachanda delivered the bolt from the blue at a public gathering in the capital, where he said to be “real”, the constituent assembly election – that will write a new constitution for Nepal – should be held in April instead of Nov 22.

The Maoist announcement follows Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s assertion earlier in the day that the election would not be put off a second time.

The international community, including the European Union, India and the US, have said that the Koirala government would lose its credibility if the election was postponed yet again.

The government failed to hold it in June due to the fragile security situation as well as lack of preparation.

The Maoists, who had been demanding that the election be held last year, are now trying to buy time due to growing public dissatisfaction with them, especially after a series of illegal and violent activities by their youth wing, the Young Communist League.

The rebels have lost their support base in the Terai plains in the south due to the emergence of a Terai party, the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum.

It was on the cards that the Maoists would try to stall the polls after they announced they wanted the abolition of monarchy before the election and would start a series of shutdowns if their demand was not met.

On Wednesday, two of their sister organisations called a general strike in Kathmandu valley as well as over nine districts.