Election will end conflict, establish republic: Carter

Jimmy CarterKathmandu, Apr 9 : Former US President Jimmy Carter said today that the April 10 Constituent Assembly election would end the armed conflict and establish a new republic in Nepal.

"I see this election is going to end an armed conflict, and form a new republic with an end to the dominating royalty," Kantipur quoted Carter as saying.

"We are very excited about the prospects of this country finding peace and also finding democracy based on republic. It is a very wonderful achievement," he added.

Carter Center, the organization he founded along with his wife Rosalynn in 1982 has already observed 70 elections in various countries.

Carter said that he and his wife work as a team and will remain in Kathmandu and visit as many polling centres as possible on April 10. And, if their 62 staff members spread throughout the country, report a serious problem in the country, the Carter Center will go to the Election Commission to report the problem to resolve it."

Carter sees this election as an opening for marginalized groups, who have a genuine role in determining their own future.

Sharing brief details of his meeting with top leaders of three major parties-- Nepali Congress, CPN (UML) and CPN (Maoist), Carter said that each one was quite certain that they would win a majority.

Carter said, “Maintaining unanimous and peaceful relationships among all constituencies were a great challenge. It seemed to me in the last year that the Maoists have proven to accommodate themselves in competitive politics. I think that's their primary desire. But I don't know enough about the Young Communist League, if they will accept a disappointing result. I hope they will."

"When the Maoists laid their arms within cantonments and joined the government, our government should have recognized them as legitimate political party and dealt with them as other nations did," he added.

Meeting with CPN-UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal and a CPN-Maoist team headed by its chairman Prachanda was focused on the peaceful CA polls.

He said that if election at a particular voting centre were not fair due to either rigging or booth capturing then it would be cancelled and a re-election would be done.

Maoist leader Bhattarai said, “We have nothing against the international observers and we welcome them. The people are in favour of change and they should prepare for an unexpected result.” (ANI)

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