Nepal marked a historic milestone on the road to peace when, on April 1, 2007, members of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) were sworn into the interim government after a decade long insurgency. The primary task of the government is to hold elections for a constituent assembly, which are scheduled for November 22, 2007.

The Asia Foundation, working with a diverse group of civil society organizations, is supporting the National Election Monitoring Alliance (NEMA), which has developed a comprehensive plan to monitor the upcoming elections. Through this national coordination structure, NEMA will recruit and deploy non-partisan domestic observers to monitor the pre-election period, election-day voting, and post-election counting. It is anticipated that approximately 20,000 election monitors will be deployed on election day, one for every polling station in the country. Before and after the elections, several thousand coordinators will also be reporting on the electoral environment from District and Village Development Committee levels. Preparation is currently underway to build the capacity of NEMA. These electoral programs will enhance the transparency, integrity, and credibility of the upcoming elections.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 3:30 pm and is filed under | Notes from the Field .