Quote Unquote (Spotlight Weekly)

"The elections should be held in as few phases as possible."

Achyut Narayan Rajbhandari, chief election commissioner, in Himalaya Times.

* * *

"We can provide adequate security to voters only if the elections are held in eight phases."

Tika Dutta Niraula, secretary at the Home Ministry, speaking at a public program.

* * *

"For the sake of the constitution, system and citizens' rights, the elections must be held. But the situation is not conducive to holding them."

Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, former home minister and senior leader of Unified Marxist-Leninist, charging the government with failing to create the proper climate for elections, in Gorkhapatra.

* * *

"The situation is not so grave that the elections cannot be held on time, but the government itself is unwilling to hold it. Moreover, the Maoists want to see an extension of the state of emergency."

Radha Krishna Mainali, member of the Unified Marxist-Leninist standing committee, in Spacetime Daily.

* * *

"The process of distributing tickets to candidates will start only after the unification of the party."

Ram Chandra Poudel, former speaker and member of the central committee of Nepali Congress, in Spacetime Daily.

* * *

"Unification of the party is impossible unless the Koirala faction realizes its mistake in not taking national security seriously."

Chiranjibe Wagle, vice-president of the Nepali Congress led by Sher Bahadur Deuba, in Himalaya Times.

* * *

"They can't claim to be the real Nepali Congress just because they got the tree."

Khum Bahadur Khadka, home minister, responding to the Election Commission's interim order allowing the Koirala group to continue using the symbol, in Bimarsha.

* * *

"Only if our neighbor (India) had been sympathetic to us, the guns being carried out by the Maoists would have turned into logs of wood."

Taranath Ranabhat, Speaker of the dissolved House of Representatives, addressing a function in the capital.

* * *