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VOL. 27, NO. 32, April 25, 2008 (Baishakh 13 2065 B.S.)
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Stung By Election
The Nepali Congress (NC) has accused the Maoists of stealing election by using force but has decided to accept the results
By A CORRESPONDENT
On April 17, Thursday, Nepali Congress (NC) called a press meet to apprise the media about its initial post election analysis.
At the press meet, Congress leaders painted ironical pictures regarding the election.
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Sujata Koirala and Dr. Mahat(Right): Stung By Election |
On the one hand, they presented evidences upon evidences of Maoists’ foul tactics in winning the election and, on the other hand, they said they were resigned to the poll result ‘in the larger interest of peace and constitution making process.’
The NC, which faced a stunning defeat in the recent Constituent Assembly (CA) election, has said that the elections were not held in peaceful and fearless environment.
"Elections did not take place in easy atmosphere. There were pre-poll psychological intimidation, physical attacks, threats, booth capturing and even post-election intimidation in many places across the country," said Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat, leader of NC.
Dr. Mahat put forth incidents in many districts pointing to the Maoist atrocities. “Look at the result of Gorkha, there the Maoist candidate got over 40,000 votes and our candidate got less than 10,000. That does not reflect the true situation there,” he said.
Around 20 district committees of Nepali Congress (NC) have already claimed that they faced election defeat due to Maoist atrocities, intimidations and threats.
They have point out the Maoist use of threats to go back to jungle if they are defeated in the election, the continued capture of seized properties, inability of displaced persons to return home, physical attacks and obstructions against other parties’ cadres from entering villages as some reasons for their defeat.
Submitting report to the party evaluating the electoral defeat, the committees have made such assertions, according to NC office secretary Shobhakar Parajuli.
The NC had urged all district committees to submit their reports analyzing party’s defeat by Tuesday.
Notwithstanding his assertions of foul play in the election by the Maoists, Dr. Mahat, however, said the party will accept the result due to larger concern for peace process.
"We will actively carry out our duty towards peace process and constitution-making exercise," he said.
Dr. Mahat also said that NC will not immediately walk out of the current government. "Our party president is the prime minister and is also working as acting head of state. He does not have the freedom to walk out of the government like other parties," he said.
The Congress is expected to take a formal decision about whether the party will remain in the government even after the first meeting of the constituent assembly at the central working committee meeting slated to begin from April 24.
The party has asked its central committee members to attend the meeting compulsorily. The party has already asked the district committee to send the reports assessing the cause party's defeat in the polls.
Meanwhile, a report by an election observation group has stated that security during election time remained inadequate and that the Maoists were involved in violent activities far more than any other party.
Releasing its preliminary report on Sunday, Democracy and Election Alliance Nepal (DEAN) said that the pre-poll violence resulted mainly because of poor security arrangement.
Though the election concluded in a peaceful manner, the election campaigning of the political parties was very limited due to security problems, DEAN said. Over 30 people had been murdered, 81 people abducted and 890 people injured in the different part of the country till the election date.
The report also pointed out that majority of the complaints of irregularities on the election day were made by Nepali Congress and CPN-UML against the Maoists and Madheshi Janadhikar Forum.
On the election day (April 10), four people had lost their lives, 112 people injured and eight others abducted in different districts, it said. DEAN had deployed 9393 election observers on short-term and long term basis.
