Kathmandu, Dec 15: Twice-postponed elections for a Constituent Assembly that will decide Nepal's political future will take place by early April, political leaders agreed Saturday.
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, leaders of all six ruling parties and a Maoist faction _ former rebels who left the government in September _ agreed to the deadline at a meeting at the prime minister's house in the capital Katmandu, said Prakash Sharan Mahat of Koirala's Nepali Congress party, who participated in the meeting.
Polling will take place before April 12, the end of the Nepali calendar year, Mahat said, adding that the leaders would meet again Sunday to decide other issues, including the election procedure.
An election to choose members of the Constituent Assembly _ which would rewrite the constitution and decide the future political system for Nepal _ was first scheduled for June 20, but was postponed because the government failed to enact sufficient election laws. A second poll set for November 22 was pushed back after the Maoists withdrew from the government.
The elections were a key stage agreed in the 2006 peace process to end the Maoists' decade-long insurgency that left more than 13,000 people dead. The former rebels joined the government earlier this year.
The Maoists quit the government in September, because the ruling alliance did not agree to their demands for the immediate abolition of the monarchy and procedural changes to the elections.
Bureau Report
