May 23, 2002	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 10,1423

KATHMANDU, May 22: Nepal’s King Gyanendra on Wednesday dissolved parliament and called new elections for November as the house seemed set to defeat an extension of emergency rule in the insurgency-wracked country.

“Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba recommended to the king to dissolve the 205-member elected parliament and call for national elections on November 13, giving various reasons,” a palace announcement said without elaborating.

“Accordingly the king has dissolved the parliament and fixed an election on November 13,” it said.

The order for Nepal’s first elections in three years came after Deuba’s Nepali Congress party failed to back him on a proposal to extend by six months a state of emergency imposed in late November.

The special measures, which expand local authorities powers to impose curfews and detain suspects, were passed after Maoist rebels broke a four-month ceasefire and unleashed a fresh round of attacks around the kingdom.

Nepal’s last elections were in May 1999, in which the Nepali Congress secured a comfortable 113 seats in the 205-member parliament. The next largest party is the Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist and Leninist with 69 MPs.

Senior Nepali Congress leader Ram Chandra Paudel said the dissolution of parliament had not been decided at a party central committee meeting attended by Deuba on Wednesday afternoon.

“It would be shocking and surprising to have an election on November 13. It would be a disaster as the election cannot be held so soon because of the Maoist situation,” he said.

—AFP