Development partners urge to stop misuse of assistance during election

Though, a break away faction of the UCPN-Maoist, Mohan Bhaidya led CPN-Maoist is yet to be convinced to take part in the Constituent Assembly (CA) election – that has made the election uncertain – Development Partners urged not be divert their assistance for any political purposes and that development resources cannot be used for political purposes as the country gears up for the CA election.

Development assistance from the Development Partners is intended to improve the lives of the poor and excluded people, whoever or wherever they are, they said, adding that it was vital that the assistance can continue even in an election environment.

Complementary to the assistance, Development Partners will also provide neutral technical support to the electoral process, as part of their ongoing and committed support to Nepal’s Peace Process. “We are committed to the principle of strict impartiality in the electoral process Nepal is going through.”

Development Partners also expect that their staff and partner organisations remain impartial at all times and particularly so in an electoral environment in keeping with the principle of impartiality.

They have also requested high standards of impartiality from their staff and partner organisations, appealing to all concerned actors in the country to understand, respect and support the impartiality during the second CA election, as the first one failed to write the Constitution.

The prolonged political transition – due to failure of the CA in last six years with four governments but no Constitution – since 2006 has led to the formation of current bureaucrat government led by Supreme Court Chief Justice Khila Raj Regmi as chairman of interim election government.

However, the CPN-Maoist led alliance has been asking Regmi to step down as Chief Justice or they will boycott the CA election, which will again make Constitution uncertain like earlier.

The country has lost more than six decades in the name of CA, and failed to focus on economy making the lives of people more miserable.