Nepal Maoist head calls for election halt

Kathmandu. The leader of Nepal’s Maoist party has threatened to boycott parliament if vote counting in this week’s “rigged” elections is not immediately halted.Pushpa Kamal Dahal, better known as Prachanda, alleged that there had been widespread fraud in the polls which amounted to a “conspiracy”.But the Election Commission has rejected his demand.Early results showed the Maoists trailing in the vote, seen as vital in moving towards political stability.The vote is the second in Nepal since a 10-year Maoist revolt ended in 2006.The previous assembly failed in its task to draft a new constitution.It was elected in 2008 after the overthrow of the monarchy but was bitterly divided.Addressing supporters in Kathmandu on Thursday, Prachanda said that vote-counting should cease to allow for an immediate investigation. ”We have clearly demanded that there should be a probe of all election processes before the next step,” he said.“If the election commission does not immediately stop counting we will completely boycott the entire election process. We will boycott the Constituent Assembly.”At a press conference he said that he accepted the “people’s verdict but cannot accept conspiracy and poll-rigging” because, he said, ballot boxes were tampered with while being transported from polling stations to counting centres.His boycott warning came after latest poll results showed that the centrist Nepali Congress party was leading in many constituencies across the country, with the Maoists trailing in third place.Sporadic violencePrachanda lost his seat in Kathmandu constituency, but is leading in another seat in the southern district of Siraha.