A Nepali Cabinet minister said on Monday Parliamentary elections due to begin on November 13 may be postponed because of the threat of violence by Maoist rebels bent on disrupting the vote.Representatives of all main political parties told Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Sunday the security situation was too risky and they urged him to postpone the elections.‘‘The election may be postponed because of the security situation,’’ senior planning minister Chiranjibi Wagle said. ‘‘We have to take the views of the political parties seriously,’’ he said. The rebels have been waging an increasingly bloody battle to topple the constitutional monarchy and install a one-party communist republic since they walked out of peace talks last November. They have vowed to block the polls and last week called for a three-day strike to coincide with the first round of voting. The election will be the fourth since 1991 when impoverished Nepal abandoned absolute monarchy and introduced Parliamentary democracy.About 5,000 people, most of them guerrillas, have been killed in the revolt since it began in 1996 — more than 3,000 since peace talks ended last November, officials say.The Election Commission has said the vote would be staggered in six phases over two months to allow security forces time to move across the mountainous country and protect voters and candidates.The rebels have been blamed for a string of small bomb blasts in Kathmandu in recent weeks, as well as several big attacks on remote security posts in the countryside.Deuba called the elections 18 months early after a row in May over an extension of a state of emergency. Emergency rule ended in August.The government also plans to recruit up to 15,000 retired soldiers for the election.
