By Shirish B PradhanKathmandu, Oct 25 (PTI) The core team of the EuropeanUnion's election observers today arrived in Nepal to monitorthe general and provincial polls scheduled for November 26 andDecember 7, an official statement said.
The Election Observation Mission's core team, comprising10 EU election analysts, arrived in Kathmandu today at therequest of the Nepal government.
The team will stay in the country until the completion ofthe electoral process and prepare a comprehensive finalreport, according to a press release issued by the EU Missionin Nepal.
The core team will be shortly joined by 38 long-termobservers who will be deployed across the country, it said.
On November 20, a short-term team of 20 observers will bedeployed for the first phase of the elections scheduled forNovember 26, while an additional 24 short-term observers willbe deployed on December 1 for the second phase of the polls onDecember 7, the EU statement said.
"The EU's Election Observation Mission looks forward tocooperating with other international and domestic observationmissions," it added.
The European Union had in 2008 and 2013 also deployedElection Observation Missions to Nepal.
Shortly after the completion of the House ofRepresentatives and provincial assemblies elections, themission will issue a preliminary statement of its findings ata press conference in Kathmandu, the EU statement said.
A final report, including recommendations for futureelectoral processes, will be presented at a later stage, afterthe finalisation of the whole electoral process, it added.
The general and provincial elections in Nepal weredeclared on August 21 and are seen as the final step in theHimalayan nation's post-war transition to a federal democracy.
The Maoists have dominated Nepal's politics for more than20 years after waging a decade-long insurgency againstgovernment forces that claimed more than 16,000 lives.
The civil war in Nepal came to an end in 2006. PTI SBPKIS AKJKIS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.