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UNSC urges Nepal to set early date for election

The powerful Security Council of the United Nations has urged Nepal to set an early date for elections.

The 15-member United Nations Security Council on Thursday called on Nepal to set an early date for elections, which have been postponed twice in recent months, reports NDTV.com – an Indian news portal - from New York.

The report says that although no formal or informal statement was issued following a discussion among the members of the SC, it's President for the month of October, Ambassador Leslie K. Christian from Ghana said: ''The Council members expressed their deep concern over postponement of elections in Nepal and hoped that things would get back on the right path. Member nations asked Nepal to ''look into the possibility of elections before the end of the year''.

The report adds that after the meeting, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, said: ''We expressed our disappointment, like a number of other colleagues, with regard to the postponement of the assembly elections and called on the government to set up a date promptly for the elections taking into account the requirements for free, fair and credible elections to take place.''

Supporting the role of the UN in Nepal, Khalilzad said: ''The election is part of a process for normalizing the situation in Nepal.''

Khalilzad urged co-operation from all parties and stakeholders in Nepal. ''Everyone, all parties must do their part in terms of cooperating with their commitments, delivering on their commitments,'' he said.

Earlier, the UN Special Envoy on Nepal, Ian Martin, briefed the Security Council on the current situation in Nepal.

The report further adds that this is for the second time in October that the Security Council has taken up the case of Nepal. Earlier on October 10, Christian read out a statement after the meeting in which the Security Council agreed that the international community needs to help Nepal to ''create conditions'' necessary to hold credible elections. nepalnews.com sd Oct 26 07