Kathmandu, November 16:

Maoist chairman Prachanda said today that election to the constituent assembly scheduled for June was deferred in connivance with the “regional power” and the “super power,” as both the nations felt that the Leftist forces would emerge victorious if the election took place at that time.

“A few weeks after our party joined the government on April 1, the Election Commission said it needed 110 days to prepare for the election.

The regional power and the super power were behind the deferral of the polls scheduled in June,” Prachanda said at an interaction organised by the Maoist central committee here. The interaction was held to discuss the two motions of a republic and fully proportional electoral system passed by the interim parliament on November 4.

He also said they had to accept the mixed election system as the Nepali Congress did not agree on the fully proportional electoral system even after their five-month efforts to convince the NC.

“Now the foreigners are more eager to holding the assembly election than the Nepali people when we are yet to fully prepare for the election,” he said. Prachanda said that foreign forces were hell-bent on reducing the Maoist presence in the Tarai, where his party’s 28 cadres were brutally massacred in Rautahat district.

He also warned that a new legislature could be formed from the street if the seven parties did not agree to implement the decision of the interim parliament on the issues of republic and full proportional electoral system.

Prachanda’s concept paper was read out by senior Maoist leader Dr Baburam Bhattarai.

In his paper, Prachanda said the NC’s status quoist mentality was the main hurdle in overthrowing the monarchy. “Without doing away with the monarchy it is impossible to hold the CA polls,” he said, adding that political activism of international forces in the country and non-implementation of agreements were also equally responsible for the crisis in the peace process.

He suggested forming a taskforce of both the sides to review all the agreements and holding of an all-sided comprehensive political conference. He suggested that the NC-held Peace and Reconstruction Ministry be dissolved and converted into a Peace Commission with representation of all parties and civil society in it and fixing new date for election on consensus basis.