NEPAL:Violence is adding to tensions over Nepal's first election in 10 years, writes JAS KAMINSKIin Kathmandu
IN THE final week of campaigning in the Himalayan nation of Nepal, increasing violence is adding to tensions and uncertainty surrounding the first nationwide elections in just under 10 years.
Hundreds of party cadres have been injured, with many suffering beatings and being chased away from campaigning in towns across the country. Five candidates have been killed in the past month.
Attacks at rallies and the setting alight to party offices and vehicles are daily occurrences as election day approaches and parties vie to win votes through persuasion, coercion and intimidation.
The main offender is the Maoist-affiliated Young Communist League, which has committed numerous offences against the Election Code of Conduct, according to reports from around the country in local papers.
The most serious breach of the 2006 peace accord took place when hundreds of armed Maoist soldiers marched out of a UN-supervised camp to attend a political rally last week.
The increasing number of incidents is not only jeopardising the freedom of the elections, but possibly whether they can actually be held.
In the current atmosphere, it would not take much to "trigger an explosive chain reaction", according to an expert working close to the elections. We are seeing an unprecedented level of political violence, even by Nepal's standards, he said.
In a country where voter education is low and illiteracy high, villagers have also complained of intimidation by Maoist cadres.
They have claimed that Maoists have warned that they will be using binoculars to watch how they vote at polling stations and that they face further consequences if the Maoists do not win, according to a local newspaper report.
Despite an undertaking given by the three main party leaders to stop poll disruptions, attacks on campaign activities by Maoist party members continue across the country unabated.
At a rural political rally earlier this week, the Maoist party chairman, Prachanda, said that his party will not accept defeat in the election, a local paper reported. He is alleged by the paper to have said that if there is a conspiracy against them, they will not return to the jungle, but "will capture power with the support of the people".
Just over 17 million people are registered to vote in a mixed electoral system that will see 240 representatives elected in a first-past-the-post race, and a further 335 seats allocated through proportional representation .
Over 50 parties and 9,000 candidates representing a huge range of political ideas are registered to contest the poll.
With voters marking their ballots with rubber stamps bearing a swastika symbol, those who want to vote extreme left will rubber stamp the swastika on top of a hammer and sickle on the paper.
A 90,000-strong police force will be deployed throughout the country to ensure security at polling stations. The security services are bracing themselves for a further period of heightened tensions after the vote, when volatility is expected to increase until final results are announced two to three weeks later.
Jimmy Carter, the former US president and founder of the Carter Centre, will lead a delegation to observe the elections which are being monitored by up to 70,000 domestic and 800 international observers.
The April 10th poll is the culmination of a 2006 peace deal struck between republican Maoist forces and mainstream secular parties that ended a decade-long insurgency aimed at toppling the monarchy which claimed 13,000 lives.
The Maoists and mainstream parties have already agreed King Gyanendra will have to go after the polls to elect a body that will rewrite Nepal's constitution and govern for two years.
While the king, who stands to lose all, is barred from taking part in the political activities, prominent royalists have warned of a "violent backlash" in the impoverished nation if threats to scrap the monarchy go ahead.
The king is seen as a deity by many Hindus in Nepal and India.
The 239-year-old monarchy was shattered in 2001 when crown prince Dipendra, in a drunken folly, shot dead his parents, King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya, and seven other members of the royal family, before turning his gun on himself.
This raised Gyanendra, the former king's brother, to the throne.
His own fall from favour began in 2005 when he dissolved parliament and took executive powers for himself, claiming this was the only way to root out corruption and fight the Maoist insurgency.
However, the king's action united opposition parties against him, and a violent people's uprising in April 2006 forced him to restore parliament.
Allies of the king insist that many people in the deeply traditional, Hindu-majority nation want the monarchy to stay, and are opposed to the drawing of the Maoists into the political system.
With the twice-postponed elections now clearly in sight, those familiar with the Himalayan landscape know that dangers increase closer to the summit, and descent can be equally hazardous. Nepal's historic elections are no different.
" Maoists have warned that they will be using binoculars to watch how people vote at polling stations