By IANS
Kathmandu : A senior Maoist leader Saturday said his party had not proposed postponing the coming election to April even as the controversial rebel youth wing began a civic campaign here to spruce up its tarnished image.
Chandra Prakash Gajurel, also known as Gaurav, in charge of the Maoists’ foreign affairs, Saturday told the official media that his party chief Prachanda had not asked for the Nov 22 election to be postponed to April 2008 as reported by the media.
With less than three months left for the constituent assembly election, Maoist chief Prachanda had been reported as saying at a public programme in the capital that the constituent assembly election should be held in April to make it “real” instead of being the mockery it would be if held this year.
Prachanda reportedly defended his proposal to defer the election on the ground that with hundreds of supporters missing since their “people’s war” and their families facing hardship, it would be inhuman to ask them for votes instead of rehabilitating them first.
Instead, he said first a roundtable conference with the representatives of the various groups currently holding separate protest movements should be held so that the disputes are addressed before the election.
He also urged the government to abolish monarchy before the election, alleging that the polls would not be free and fair as long as King Gyanendra remained king.
The Maoist proposal came as Nepal’s major donors, including India, the European Union and the US, said the 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 preparations.
On the occasion of the Indian Independence Day on Aug 15, the Indian ambassador to Nepal Shiv Shankar Mukherjee had warned that the polls should not be postponed on any excuse.
Gajurel, however, said the Maoists have tabled a 22-point programme detailing the conditions required for the polls to be free and fair.
“Postponing the election does not figure there,” he told state-run Nepal Television.
With a Maoist minister holding the information ministry, Gajurel’s statement is being regarded as a damage control measure by the Maoists after the furore created by Prachanda’s call.
On Saturday, as another damage control measure, the Young Communist League, the Maoist youth wing that has contributed to the alienation of the party due to its aggressive activities, began cleaning garbage from main streets in Kathmandu.
The Maoists, who were the first to demand the election in 1996, have now begun staging programmes guaranteed to have an effect on the polls, like enforcing general strikes.
If the election had been held last year, when King Gyanendra had just been stripped of his power and was immensely unpopular, the rebels would have been able to cash in on the public anger against the king.