56 Parties to Participate in Nepal's Municipal Polls

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 28 Nov: Altogether 56 political parties have been permitted by the Election Commission to contest the 8 February municipal polls, the Commission said Monday.

The Commission said Monday it gave permission to 17 more political parties to participate in the elections.

Seventy-two parties registered for the polls within the 18 November deadline.

Recognized national parties can register for the vote 15 days before elections even though they didn't register for election purposes.

This paves the way for national parties of the Seven Party Alliance to participate in the vote despite their non-registration so far.

Maoists and seven parties have said they will actively boycott the vote.

The United Nations has come under criticism for supporting the boycott even as the King attempts to restore derailed democracy.

Nepal has been without an elected parliament for six years.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has supported an alliance between seven political parties and Maoists labeled terrorists to push what he called the restoration of peace and derailed democracy.

Because of the support, the UN has lost any credibility to broker a peace in Nepal by its open support for the opposition movement and terrorist activities even as the world fights a global war against terrorism.

UN neutrality, necessary to resolve a conflict, has been jeopardized with Annan's support for the New Delhi accord pushed by the Indian government against a legal government.

In any eventuality, the UN obviously cannot monitor any possible cessation of hostilities between the government and Maoists brokered by India along the open 1,700 kms border with open Indian support for the opposition.

New Delhi has been playing a devious role. It has imposed three blockades on land-locked Nepal in three decades - the last was the deadliest.

A military embargo was imposed as Nepal was fighting a Maoist republican movement in the 21st century when communism has collapsed worldwide and monarchy still survives in Asia and Europe as democratic institutions.

India engineered an understanding between the SPA and Maoists without the involvement of a legal and constitutional government.

When 200,000 Nepali government troops could not control Indian help for Maoists in Nepal, can the UN? No, it cannot. It does not have a standing army of that strength to monitor Indian infiltration across the open border with an imperial New Delhi.

The UN cannot implement any written or oral Indian government commitment not to openly arm future armed insurrection in Nepal when New Delhi and Maoists, in collusion, will flout it.

The role of the UN has come into focus because of its eagerness to mediate the Nepal conflict and its assessment that the New Delhi accord has pushed peace and the restoration of democracy.

The objectives of the New Delhi accord are fuzzy, to say the least.