KIRTIPUR, NEPAL -- — The police who once hunted him as a guerrilla leader now guard him as a political candidate. He urges his radical young followers to act more like Gandhi and less like the gun-toting rebels many of them were.
Prachanda, Nepal's revered and reviled Maoist supremo, is trying hard to convince his fellow Nepalese, and the rest of the world, that he is committed to revolution through the ballot box, not the barrel of a gun.
Across this dirt-poor Himalayan nation, millions of voters are expected to go to the polls Thursday in an election whose outcome will demonstrate, in large measure, whether they believe his promises -- and, in turn, whether he keeps them.
He insists he will. The brutal, decade-long "People's War" waged by communist insurgents in which more than 13,000 died is a thing of the past, says Prachanda, the nom de guerre of Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Democracy and peaceful collaboration are the order of the day.
"Let there be no doubt," he declared in an interview after a recent election rally in this Maoist stronghold outside Katmandu, the capital. "We will not break the peace process even [if] we are in the minority. But we believe we will be in the majority."
Plenty of Nepalese view such pledges with mistrust, especially when the former guerrilla follows them with accusations of a conspiracy to undermine his party. Some of his deputies warn of a backlash if their party loses.
The balloting has already been postponed twice, partly because of alleged violations of the peace process by Maoist cadres.
Security for the election remains a serious concern: Several small bombs exploded in Katmandu over the weekend, and there have been numerous cases of campaign violence, including the reported fatal shooting of a communist candidate Tuesday in western Nepal.
Many analysts think the former rebel group will finish last out of the three main parties, though none of the formations will own an outright majority. Official results may not be known for up to three weeks.
Regardless of the outcome, the election is likely to change this backward country of 28 million people forever.
The 601 seats up for grabs are for a constituent assembly that will draw up a new constitution. Most of the assembly will be elected, but a few members will be appointed. Women, those of low caste and the long-oppressed people from the southern plains are among those angling for a say in how to reinvent their country.
