Kathmandu, Apr 13: Nepal's King Gyanendra reiterated on Tuesday his commitment to hold parliamentary elections within a year in his annual New Year's message.
He said the restoration of democracy would top the national agenda.
"Highest priority must be accorded to the creation of an environment wherein the governance of the country can be handed over to elected representatives by initiating elections to the House of Representatives (by April 2005)," the king said in his message, issued by the Royal Palace in Kathmandu.

"All those who have faith in multi-party democracy must be able to participate in these elections without let or hindrance," he said on the occasion of Nepal's new year 2061 (April 13, 2004).
The king, under increasing pressure from opposition parties to reinstate the Government he sacked for 'incompetence' in October 2002, made a similar offer to hold elections late last month.
But a five-party political alliance, which has been behind months of street protests that culminated in the past fortnight with daily demonstrations by tens of thousands near his palace in Kathmandu, rejected the offer then as a "gimmick" designed to buy the monarch more time.

Demanding the vote be held under an all-party Government, the political groups stepped up their protests and called even more people on to the streets, leading to scuffles with police and mass arrests. Bureau Report