Maoists stormed out of Nepal’s government and vowed to disrupt upcoming elections on Tuesday after other parties refused to bow to the ex-rebels’ demand for the monarchy to be immediately abolished.
In a blow to Nepal’s 10-month-old peace process, the ultra-leftists said they would stage street protests — and threatened violence if provoked — to force unpopular King Gyanendra to step down and make the country a republic.
“We will violate the election commission’s code of conduct and disrupt all their plans for elections in November,” said the Maoists’ second-in-command, Baburam Bhattarai.
Under the terms of last year’s peace deal that ended a decade of civil war, the future of the monarchy was supposed to have been decided by a constitutional body due to be democratically elected in November.
But the Maoists claimed the king’s supporters are planning to undermine those polls and want the monarchy to be ousted immediately.
At a rally attended by about 5 000 cheering Maoists, Bhattarai called for strikes in the run-up to the polls, which are to elect a body that, as well as deciding the future of the monarchy, will rewrite Nepal’s Constitution.
“Our protests will be peaceful but if anybody tries to make it violent we will retaliate with the same kind of actions,” Bhattarai warned in his speech to the red flag-waving crowd.
“We think the government is staging a drama.”
Bhattarai said that unless a republic was declared before the polls, the election would be a farce.
“We have pulled out from the government this afternoon [Tuesday] as the talks failed to reach an understanding on the immediate abolition of monarchy and a proportional election system,” senior Maoist official Dev Gurung told Agence France-Presse.
Analysts say the Maoists had staged the move because they were expected to fare poorly in the polls. Last month, Maoist leader Prachanda called for the elections to be delayed until next April.
“The Maoists have realised that their power is diminishing,” said Lak Raj Baral, a political science professor at Tribhuvan University.
Although the ex-rebels have stopped short of threatening to pull their fighters and weapons out of United Nations-supervised camps following their retreat from government, protests are also expected there.
Maoist cadres have for months been complaining of pitiful living conditions in the camps — underscoring the difficulties they have had in evolving from a force of hardened guerrillas into a mainstream political party.
The UN urged the Maoists to abide by agreements made last year.
“The United Nations Mission in Nepal calls on the Maoist leadership to observe its commitments to keep the Maoist army in cantonment and that it not be mobilised for political protests,” said Kieran Dwyer, a UN spokesperson.
Politicians from Nepal’s mainstream parties were dismayed by the Maoists’ decision. Most want the 238-year-old monarchy to go, but have been sticking by the principle that such a decision should only be taken after democratic elections.
“We hope that the Maoists will review their decision as it could pose a serious setback in the holding of the upcoming polls,” Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat said. — AFP