Nepalese protesters arrested during anti-election strike

Nepalese police arrested protesters for attacking a media vehicle and threatening people on Sunday as transportation across the country was blocked by groups opposing elections. The nationwide strike was called by a coalition of 33 political parties including a breakaway Maoist faction to oppose the current caretaker government, which is charged with holding polls. "We have arrested 15 people for vandalising a television vehicle with rocks and threatening to harm people as they pass by demonstrations," police spokesman Keshav Adhikari told AFP. Schools, businesses, and markets in the capital Kathmandu were closed because of the protest. "The agreement by the four parties that paved the way for this government was a coup d'etat," Dev Gurung, a leader of the breakaway Maoist faction, told AFP. "The parties involved have done away with the multi-party system and introduced a party-less government," he said. As part of a four-party deal, Chief Justice Khilraj Regmi took over last month at the helm of an interim administration to oversee what will be only the second national polls since the end of a civil war in 2006. Nepalese politics has operated in a legislative vacuum since May last year when the parliament, which had doubled as a constitution drafting body, was dissolved without producing the charter. Political infighting, which included a split in the ruling Maoist party last year, has confounded efforts to implement a peace plan meant to rebuild the country after its 10-year civil war. In recent weeks, opposition party members have attempted to interrupt voter registration by destroying computers used to register citizens. Regmi's 11-member cabinet has not yet announced a date for elections, which political parties initially agreed should be held by the end of June, though some have begun to express doubts about the feasibility of June polls. During a visit to Nepal last week, former US president Jimmy Carter said he met with leaders from the breakaway Maoist faction and urged them to end violence against people.