Carter holds 'closed-door' meetings with top leftist leaders
Continuing with his high-profile meetings ahead of this Thursday's election for Constituent Assembly which he would be personally monitoring, former US President Jimmy Carter met CPN-UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal and a CPN-Maoist team headed by its chairman Prachanda in a hush-hush environment at the posh venue of Soaltee Hotel Tuesday.
The co-founder of Carter Center who heads a 60-member international election observer mission to Nepal first met CPN-UML general secretary Nepal.
Jimmy Carter. (Photo source: video.aol.com)
During the closed-door meeting that went for nearly an hour, the two leaders mainly discussed the problems in holding the elections in a peaceful manner; its outcome and the post-election scenario.
The Nepalnews reporter who was present at the venue said that journalists were strictly barred from entering inside the hotel premises and were made to wait for comments at the gates of the sprawling 5-star hotel. Few media persons who had managed to enter the hotel premises were immediately asked to leave and wait for the dignitaries at the hotel gates.
Emerging from the meeting, UML general secretary Nepal told media-persons that Carter chiefly tried to learn how peacefully the election would be held and what the outcome would be like. In reply, he said he told Carter that if it was found that election at a particular voting center were not fair with instances of rigging or booth capturing then it should be
cancelled and a re-election should be done.
Nepal said he drew the attention of the Carter Center that international poll observers had not reached the remote parts of the country for themonitoring purpose and said that there ought to be coordination between national and international election observation to see that this happens. He further said that the Maoist-affiliated YCL and Indian criminal gangs
engaged in cross border terrorism to disrupt the polls are the biggest threat towards successful holding of the polls.
When he was asked about the post-election scenario, Nepal also told Carter that an all-party government would be formed regardless of the outcome of the elections.
During the meeting Carter wished that the election be held in a peaceful manner, while stressing on the need for all the stake-holders to play a positive role in making the historic CA election a success.
Immediately after this, Carter sat for another round of meeting with a team of CPN-Maoist party headed by chairman Prachanda and his deputy Baburam Bhattarai.
The meeting also revolved around the same issues as in the earlier meeting.
Coming out of the meeting venue, Baburam Bhattarai said Carter had asked them whether the election would be held in a free and fair manner.
"In reply, we said it would definitely take place in a free and fair manner and we are committed to making the polls free and fair," Bhattarai said.
Bhattarai further said that in reply to Carter's query about whether the Maoists are happy with the international election observers coming into Nepal to monitor polls they said that they had nothing against the international observers and that they had welcomed them.
Similarly, asked about the kind of government that would come into being after the election, Bhattarai told him that a "government of consensus" would be formed and which would be lead by the party securing most seats in CA.
"We told him that the people are in favor of change and they should prepare for an unexpected result," the Maoist leader told reporters. He, however, said that there was no discussion on the issue of removing the Maoists from the terrorist list or whether the party would accept the outcome of the election or not. nepalnews.com ag/ps Apr 08 08
