KATHMANDU, Nepal, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- Nepalese Prime Minister G.P. Koirala, after talks with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, plans to announce a new date for constituent assembly elections.
The date would be announced after consultations with other parties in Koirala's interim government, Xinhua reported Saturday.
The prime minister assured his U.S. visitor that he is dedicated to holding the polls by April of next year, the report said. The elections were put off indefinitely because of differences in Koirala's seven-party interim government.
Carter arrived in Nepal last week to resolve the Himalayan kingdom's political crisis and reschedule the elections.
The interim government came into being last year under a U.N.-led peace accord that ended a decade-long Maoist insurgency. The current crisis began when rebels, who had joined the interim government, resigned in September asking for the abolition of Nepal's 238-year monarchy.
The parties with whom President Carter held talks reportedly favored Nepal being declared a republic in a legal manner.
Koirala's foreign affairs adviser Aditya Baral quoted Carter as saying he felt such a declaration can come with the first meeting of the constituent assembly, the report said.
