KATHMANDU, April 1: While brushing aside allegations from various quarters that the Carter Center had ´prematurely´ declared the Constituent Assembly (CA) election held in 2008 as ´free and fair´, visiting former US President Jimmy Carter, who heads the Center, has defended his position on the last CA election.
Addressing a press conference organized before wrapping up his four-day visit to Nepal on Monday, Carter said the last election though ´imperfect´ was ´fair enough´. [break]"There were certainly some intimidations at a time by the Maoists or by the others which we have acknowledged in our reports. But in general my judgement in June, 2008 is that the elections adequately represented the will of the Nepalese people," he said.
"It was not perfect. But in my judgement it was fair enough and it was a successful elections. I have not changed my mind," he further said while responding to a query from journalists.
During their meeting with the former US president Sunday, Nepali Congress leaders had complained that he had given legitimacy to the election in which the Maoists engaged in mass vote riggings. The NC leaders had also suggested to him to make comments only after making a comprehensive monitoring of the election while positively responding to the desire of Carter to send observer teams in the upcoming elections.
Carter at press meet. (Photo: Bhaswor Ojha)
Carter, who arrived in Kathmandu on Friday, had held meetings with President Dr Ram Baran Yadav, Chairman of the Interim Election Council Khil Raj Regmi, Election Commissioners and top leaders of various parties including those currently involved in disrupting the voter registration process.
He took strong exception to the move of the CPN-Maoist to disrupt voters´ registration process and abduction of EC officials involved in the process. "I heard news this [Monday] morning that three election workers were kept or kidnapped for six hours. Kidnapping is a serious crime and abuse of rights and freedom of people. So, this violence in order to accomplish political goal is against the commitment made to the people," he further said.
Arguing that the disgruntled political forces including the Mohan Baidya-led CPN-Maoist had only two options at hand -- either comply with the decision that has been already made and compromise on their position and support the election process or be excluded from interfering the election by police. "That my own hope is if he [Baidya] persists in trying to keep people from registering to be voters or from carrying out election and that if his people will interfere at local polling stations they should be arrested and punished for their illegal activities," he further said.
Stating that it would now be appropriate to schedule CA poll for November, Carter stressed the need for making the new CA as inclusive as it was before. "I think 2008 Constituent Assembly was a major step forward in accommodating people who were formerly marginalized or excluded from the political process. I do not want to see new CA going backward in that process of bringing in the people who deserve to be here," he added, while pointing out the need to hold local level election at the earliest.
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