UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / - 09 April 2008 -- With long postponed elections for Nepal ’s Constituent Assembly set for tomorrow, violence broke out today, resulting in the deaths of seven people. 

Six of them belonged to the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M). A number of others were wounded. The casualties occurred in Dang district when members of the security forces starting shooting. The seventh person killed was Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) candidate Rishi Prasad Sharma.

Both shootings are under inquiry by the UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) in cooperation with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Peace and Conflict Management Committee.

Today’s events are not the first pre-election deaths and on Monday a report by the UNMIN and OHCHR-Nepal warned of political clashes and attempts to pressure and threaten voters. But as of yesterday, Ian Martin, Special Representative for Nepal said he believed the run-up to the election was going well. He said that the human rights violations and fighting should not obscure the elements that have gone well and the progress the election represents.

Martin expressed that, “It is important to emphasize that in many districts, many constituencies, peaceful campaigning has been going on throughout this election campaign,” and “That is a very considerable feat for an election more complicated than any Nepal has carried out before.” How the situation has been changed by today’s killings is unclear.

Special Representative Martin has said that he is “deeply shocked” by today’s deaths and encouraged all political factions in Nepal to “exercise restraint and avoid provocations of one another, including detention of party workers.” Ban Ki-moon also appealed for them “to remain calm while cooperating to allow this election to take place in a peaceful atmosphere” and said “[t]he Nepalese have worked hard to reach this historic moment and deserve a credible ballot to cement democracy in Nepal .”

Both Martin and Ban Ki-Moon has highlighted the necessity of ensuring that the voting is fair and the outcome can be trusted. A video message by the Secretary General on Tuesday told the Nepalese that they “now have a critical responsibility to ensure that voters can freely exercise their democratic right in a secret ballot, without fear of violence, intimidation or manipulation.”

The elections are vital for Nepal since the Constituent Assembly, once elected will write a new constitution for the country.  

--Caroline Patton

Labels: United Nations, U.N.

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