Nepal’s Maoists branded their rivals ‘fascists’ on Wednesday as bitter fighting between parties dashed hopes of a consensus to guide the country through months of a political power vacuum.
The Maoists’ rhetoric came with the troubled Himalayan country without a parliament and only a caretaker government after the Constituent Assembly was disbanded having failed to agree on a new constitution.
The prime minister, Baburam Bhattarai, who is from the Maoist party, has vowed to lead the country into the November election, but opposition parties have said his move is illegal and demanded that he quit.
‘It’s natural for opposition parties to demand the prime minister’s resignation, but the elections are part of the democratic process,’ Maoist spokesman Dina Nath Sharma said.
‘We need to be tested by the people. Those who question the elections are fascists.’
Sharma called on the party’s 220 lawmakers, the largest group in parliament, to meet voters and apologies for politicians’ failure to finalise the new constitution, which was meant to start a new era after the civil war ended in 2006.
‘They will have to go back, face the people, explain to them the situation leading up to the assembly’s dissolution,’ he said. ‘They will have to apologies if it is required.’
The president, Ram Baran Yadav, has said Bhattarai’s refusal to resign after parliament was dissolved on Sunday led to widespread confusion about who was in power and that the premier should try to form a national unity government.
The Nepali Congress and Unified Marxist Leninist party, the largest parties after the Maoists, have vowed to hold rallies and street protests to topple Bhattarai.
An estimated 16,000 people died in the 1996-2006 ‘people’s war’ fought by the Maoists against the state.
The rebels gave up arms and won 2008 elections following the abolition of the centuries-old Hindu monarchy.