By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS
Kathmandu : Nepal’s embattled Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has ruled out announcing fresh dates for the twice-delayed constituent assembly election “in a hurry”, even as pressure mounted on him from both opposition parties and the international community for an early election.
The prime minister, who had earlier said he would quit if he failed to hold the polls on Nov 22, told a visiting delegation of European Union (EU) envoys in Nepal Wednesday that new dates would be announced only after consultations among the ruling alliance and the Maoists.
The EU, along with the US, India and the United Nations, had expressed disappointment last week after the government put off the polls indefinitely due to Maoist pressure and instead called a special session of parliament in a bid to resolve the deepening feud.
Besides asking Koirala to hold the election at the earliest, the EU has also expressed concern at the deteriorating security situation, especially in the Terai plains in south Nepal.
On Wednesday, local bodies — known as village development committee offices — remained shut countrywide to protest against the killing of yet another government official in the turbulent Terai.
A band of former Maoists — the Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha led by former senior rebel leader Jay Krishna Goit — Monday killed Ram Babu Sharma Neupane, a government official in Bara district, for not paying extortion money.
Neupane is the eighth government official to be killed by armed groups in the plains since February.
There has been an exodus of government officials from the plains due to threats by the groups with the government failing to bring the situation under control.
A concerned Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent former Indian foreign secretary Shyam Saran as his special envoy Wednesday, to mediate with the parties and resolve the election imbroglio.
However, there are indications that both Koirala and the Maoists favour delaying the election.
Maoist chief Prachanda suggested holding a referendum first to decide the contentious issues, an exercise that would take several months.
Koirala’s Nepali Congress, the biggest party in parliament, has just concluded a three-day meet of its leaders with a proposal to hold a national convention of the party first, which would take at least four more months.
The Maoists stopped the election saying they wanted the abolition of monarchy the adoption of a fully proportional election system first.
They forced the government to call a special session of parliament from Thursday to decide the two issues by a vote among MPs.
However, the vote is unlikely to resolve the dispute since most of the parties have said they would vote against the proposals while the Maoists have said if they lost, they would start another revolt.