Two explosions have struck an election rally in the south of Nepal, leaving at least nine people wounded.

The violence comes as the country prepares to hold elections following a peace deal between mainstream parties and Maoist fighters in 2006 that ended a protracted civil conflict.

A bomb was thrown on Monday into a crowd of supporters of the Nepali Congress during a campaign event in Birgunj, 80km south of the capital Kathmandu, Ramesh Shekhar Bajracharya, a police officer, said.

Nepali Congress is one of the country's main political parties.

No group has claimed responsibility, but the authorities suspect that the purpose was to create panic before the elections.

Earlier, a similar blast injured at least one person near the UN mission in Kathmandu.

The elections on Thursday are for an assembly that will rewrite the country's constitution, and possibly end the country's 240-year-old monarchy by removing King Gyanendra.

Maoists criticized

A UN report has said that the Maoists, who are taking part in elections for the first time, are the worst perpetrators of pre-poll bullying.

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

Nepal's southern plains have seen sporadic unrest since the 2006 peace agreement.

Ethnic protesters in the southern Terai region say they are discriminated against by highlanders and have been demanding federal powers.

Protest threat

The Maoists have accused Gyanendra and his allies of stoking the violence in order to undermine the peace deal and the push for the country to be declared a republic.

They have vowed to respect the election results but will launch major protests if they feel the polls have been rigged against them.

"If Maoists were defeated through riggings, the people will seize power within 10 minutes, not 10 days," the Kathmandu Post newspaper recently quoted Baburam Bhattarai, the Maoists' deputy leader, as saying.

PHOTO CAPTION 

An officer of the Nepal Election Commission sorts out election posters after distributing to various polling centers in Katmandu, Nepal, April 7, 2008.

Al-Jazeera