Towards Postponing
CA Elections
The Gaur incident shadowed the protests of the business community in Kathmandu against the beating of two businessmen by Maoist cadres. In a meeting with the protesting businessmen, Maoist leader Prachanda said he suspects infiltration of antisocial elements in his party after it came overground 11 months ago.
 Late February, Ian Martin, head of the UN mission overseeing the peace process in Nepal , expressed doubt that the election to the Constituent Assembly will actually be held as scheduled by June-end. The reason he gave was the lack of political consensus on the electoral system. By late March, there seems to be a consensus that the elections will actually be postponed. The major reason for the likely postponement is the lack of a peaceful atmosphere to hold impartial polls.
A glaring example of lawlessness came to the fore after the gory clash between the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum and the Maoists on March 21 at Gaur, Rautahat district. After the incident, the bodies of 27 people (most of them believed to be of Maoist cadres) were found around the incident site. Human rights activists who inspected the bodies suspect the involvement of professional criminals in the killings. Maoist leader Prachanda demanded that the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum be outlawed.
The Gaur incident shadowed the protests of the business community in Kathmandu against the beating of two businessmen by Maoist cadres. In a meeting with the protesting businessmen, Maoist leader Prachanda said he suspects infiltration of antisocial elements in his party after it came overground 11 months ago. He also promised actions against the miscreants. Meanwhile, the Maoist cadres held separate demonstration trying to justify their action against the two businessmen.
Both these developments took place immediately after all the political parties held a meeting with the Election Commission and emphasised the need to hold the elections to the constituent assembly by mid-June. Meanwhile, the EC is complaining that the time is just too short to prepare for the polls. If postponed, it is unlikely that the elections will be held before November. Out of the six laws needed by the EC, five are still under consideration in the Parliament. Meanwhile, the government has completed the setting up of the commission for delineating the constituencies.
The latest news is that the President of the Nepali Congress (Democratic), Sher Bahadur Deuba, and President of Nepal Workers and Peasants Party, Narayan Man Bijukche, (both members of the ruling seven-party alliance) have gone public expressing opinion in favour of postponing the elections. More of the political leaders are expressing similar views.
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