Stop intimidating voters, U.N. tells Nepal parties

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - The United Nations urged Nepal's political parties and its former Maoist rebels on Saturday to stop intimidating voters ahead of next month's national elections.

Nepalis vote on April 10 for a constituent assembly that will prepare a new constitution, the centrepiece of a 2006 peace deal to end a bloody civil war with the Maoists.

At least two people have died and dozens have been injured in election-related violence.

Leading Nepali political parties say the Maoists are preventing their leaders from campaigning in the countryside where they are thought to have a strong presence.

"The CPN-M must end the practice of preventing other parties from campaigning in areas where it is strong or which it considers its natural political territory," the United Nations Mission in Nepal said in a report, referring to the ex-guerrilla group known as Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).

Calling on all political parties to abide by the election code of conduct, the report said results of a flawed election would not command legitimacy.

"Intimidation and pressure on voters to vote for or against a party should cease."

Analysts say the violence could threaten the credibility of the election, Nepal's first in nearly nine years and which Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala described as a matter of national prestige.

"If we can't hold the election we will lose our image among the international community," the 83-year-old Koirala told reporters.