UN report says Nepal security situation not improving

Aug 29, 2007, 14:13 GMT

Kathmandu - A United Nations team reviewing Nepal's electoral process in the run-up to key elections in November said Wednesday that the country's security situation had not improved.

The UN comments came in a report by Electoral Expert Monitoring Team (EEMT) which was handed over to the Nepalese government and the country's election commission.

EEMT was in Nepal for its second visit in late July to early August.

'The report details the findings of this second visit, with a mention that the security situation has not improved since the first visit in June,' United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) said.

'The EEMT states that establishing an adequate security environment for the Constituent Assembly election will depend not so much on the number of police or arms deployed, but on cooperation between political parties and clear instructions to their activists in the districts.'

The team also felt Nepalese press faced serious limitations in reporting and distributing newspapers, especially in the southern Nepalese plains known as Terai.

It said that it was vital for the press to operate freely to inform the people about the election.

'The need for increased public information and awareness-raising is also underlined by the EEMT, especially with the introduction of a mixed electoral system for the first time in Nepal,' UNMIN said.

Nepal will hold the election on November 22 to choose an assembly that will rewrite the country's constitution and vote on the future of monarchy.

However, there is growing concerns about the elections being held on the scheduled date especially with several ethnic groups and the Maoists former rebels openly opposing the voting system.

The ethnic groups and the Maoists want the elections held on full proportional representation system instead of the mixed system announced by the government.

The country's election commission has announced that only half of 480 seats of the assembly will be based on proportional representation while the other half will be directly elected.