By IANS
Kathmandu : The peace process in Nepal has lost its momentum, said an EU delegation Thursday as it wound up its four-day visit to assess the situation and urge the Girija Prasad Koirala government to hold the twice-postponed elections at the earliest.
Leader of the delegation Pedro Moitinho de Almeida, special representative of the EU presidency for Political Dialogues with Third Countries, said there was a need to rebuild confidence in the process and have a clear commitment to the elections.
“Repeated postponement of the elections erodes the credibility and affects the process of democratic transformation and legitimisation in Nepal,” the envoy said.
“Early elections and a mandate from the people are an essential component of the peace process.”
The visit comes at a time Nepal’s Maoist guerrillas and the ruling parties have been locked in a battle in parliament for over two months now with neither side ready to yield.
The Maoists, who walked out of the government in September and created a crisis by opposing the constituent assembly elections scheduled for Nov 22, are demanding that King Gyanendra be sacked before the elections and a fully proportional electoral system be used.
The demands go against the rebels’ commitment to a peace accord where they agreed to the polls and the elected assembly deciding the fate of the king, who angered the nation by trying to rule the country with the support of the army.
According de Almeida, the abolition of a system before the elections would not happen in any of the EU countries. However, if Nepal chose to do it, the EU wouldn’t cut ties with it.
He also said that in its first meeting with the Maoists, the troika had been told by the rebels that they are committed to peaceful elections.
However, for the polls to be credible, the EU says Nepal has to put some key building blocks in place.
Security is a primary concern.
“Lawlessness, notably in the Terai, is increasing,” de Almeida said. “People live in fear and are prevented from going about their daily lives.”
To control violence, he stressed that impunity, whether by the state or others, would have to be tackled.
The EU is also calling for addressing the plight of the Maoist army that has been confined to primitive cantonments for almost a year now.
In addition, it says the Koirala government needs to implement the pacts it made with marginalized groups and give priority to better delivery of basic services.
Just before the EU, China and former American president Jimmy Carter urged the government to hold elections at the earliest. Carter, who has proposed a compromise formula to end the deadlock, has also asked for restoring law and order, especially in the Terai.