Nepal PM considers delaying polls

Recent clashes have heightened security concerns

The Prime Minister of Nepal, Sher Bahadur Deuba, has begun consultations with the country's senior political figures on postponing parliamentary elections.

Rebel attacks suggest they are a potent force

This follows suggestions made by the opposition at a cross- party meeting on Sunday that because of the country's difficult security situation, elections be delayed by several months.

Elections became necessary after King Gyanendra, acting on Mr Deuba's advice, dissolved the parliament in May, after the government failed to secure support for extending a state of emergency imposed last year to deploy the army against Maoist rebels.

Renewed clashes between security forces and the rebels in recent weeks in various parts of the country, and several bomb attacks in the capital Kathmandu, the latest on Sunday, have caused concerns about the security of candidates and voters.

The Maoists, who have waged a campaign to replace Nepal's constitutional monarchy with a communist republic for six years, have said they would disrupt polling.

Strike threat

Mr Deuba met the country's senior politicians on Sunday to discuss the polling schedule issued by the election commission a day earlier.

Mr Deuba: considering postponement

The commission had announced plans to hold elections in all 205 constituencies in six phases starting on 13 November.

Polls would be conducted in six phases so that security forces could be concentrated in areas where elections were being held.

Initially, Mr Deuba had asked that polls be conducted in seven stages while the opposition wanted no more than three.

But the Maoists have already called a three-day strike beginning on 11 November and their recent attacks on security forces, and bomb attacks in the capital, suggest a resolve to disrupt the voting.

Rising toll

The Maoists began their campaign in 1996, demanding that a constituent assembly be formed to recommend constitutional changes leading to the establishment of a communist republic.

Prime Minister Deuba's government held several rounds of peace talks with the rebels late last year until the Maoists walked out and resumed attack on government forces.

The government then imposed a state of emergency and deployed the army against the Maoists although this did not eliminate the rebels as a potent force.

About 5,000 people are thought to have been killed in the six years of violence.