By DPA
Kathmandu : The UN has said it would redeploy its election officials in the country, insisting that credible elections are a key step in Nepal’s peace process.
Chief of United Nations Missions in Nepal (UNMIN) Ian Martin told reporters Friday that the elections to choose a constituent assembly must be fair to include the rights of ethnic and marginalized groups.
“A credible constituent assembly election is a key step in the peace process and a means to consolidate democracy, stability and development of Nepal,” Martin said ahead of his departure for New York where he is expected the to brief the Security Council on the latest political developments in Nepal.
He, however, said much depended on the Nepal’s political leaders on guaranteeing the April 10 election is held on schedule.
“The council will want to know the prospect of the elections taking place as planned 10 April,” Martin said. “I will not be able to answer these questions with certainty, because they do not depend on UNMIN: they depend on Nepali political and community leaders.”
The constituent assembly election is a key component of the peace agreement between the government and the Maoists signed in November 2006.
The assembly will rewrite the country’s constitution and ratify the decision of the interim parliament to declare the country a republic.
The agreement formally ended the decade-long communist insurgency and obliged the rebels to hand over their weapons to the UN and allowed them to join mainstream politics.