UN envoy to Nepal questions June polls sans consensus

United Nations, Feb 27 (UNI) The UN envoy to Nepal has warned that the scheduled elections in June may have to be postponed unless some form of consensus is reached "very soon" on the electoral arrangements in the Himalayan country.

Amid violence in the Terai region of southern Nepal, Maoist combatants leaving their cantonment sites and a continuing lack of agreement among the country's political parties, the scheduled elections seem to be difficult in Nepal.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Special Representative, Ian Martin, who heads the UN Political Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), also acknowledged the "striking difference" between the relatively small number of Maoist arms given up for registration and the large number of combatants in the seven main cantonment sites.

"Unless a consensus can be reached very soon on the electoral arrangements for the constituent assembly election, then the intention to hold that election by mid-June will be called into question," he told a news conference yesterday at UN headquarters in New York, adding that Nepal's eight main political parties are currently discussing the issue of the electoral system.

He further stated, "The chief election commissioner has stated publicly that the legislative basis for the elections needs to be in place very soon if the timetable is to go forward. Now already the process has begun, the updating of voter rolls has already taken place in most of the country but there isn't yet a final decision on the electoral system." Turning to the issue of the registration of Maoist arms and combatants, as stipulated under the November peace agreement that also calls for government troops to be confined to their barracks, Mr Martin said "There hasn't yet been a definitive statement on the part of the government. There is certainly a striking difference between the number of weapons registered, a little less than 3,500 and the number of combatants, over 30,000," he said.

"There's undoubtedly going to be a continuing argument as whether the numbers do or do not show that the Maoists have complied with their commitments to register all their weapons. The UN can't make a definitive judgment, we can only make the information available as what has been registered to the government for it to scrutinize and that's what they're doing now." Last week, Mr Martin announced that the first stage of registration of Maoist arms and weapons had been completed at seven main cantonment sites, but he also expressed "grave concern" because some combatants had left these areas. UNMIN has also called on the government and the Maoists to cooperate in improving conditions at these sites.

The Security Council established UNMIN late last month to assist the follow-up to the landmark Nepalese peace deal, reached between the government and the Maoists, and also to support this year's planned elections in the impoverished country where 10 years of civil war killed around 15,000 people and displaced over 100,000 others.

UNI