Kathmandu: The UN appealed to Nepal's former Maoist rebels and other parties to halt violence to ensure fair voting as campaigning wound up today for landmark polls this week that will decide the nation's future.

The elections on Thursday are being held to create an assembly that is slated to rewrite the constitution and is also expected to remove King Gyanendra and end his country's 240-year-old dynasty.

"Intimidation of voters must stop" and the election must be "violence-free," UN spokesman Kieran Dwyer told AFP here hours before a bomb went off near the United Nations mission in the capital. Police said one person was wounded in the blast.

The run-up to the elections in the impoverished country of 27 million people has been marred by violence by all political parties.

But Dwyer's statement came on the heels of a UN report which singled out the Maoists, taking part in elections for the first time after fighting a decade-long civil war, as the worst perpetrators of pre-poll violence.

The Maoists, led by Prachanda, whose nom de guerre means the "fierce one", have been threatening voters by saying they can find out how they voted, vowing to punish those who cast ballots against them, according to local journalists. People going to the polls need to do so without fear of reprisal, the UN spokesman said.

"Voters must have confidence in the secrecy of the ballot so that they can vote according to their conscience," Dwyer said.

Source : PTI