Pre-election violence flares in Nepal, 7 dead

KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Nepalese police shot and killed a demonstrator Wednesday as he protested the killing of a political candidate a day earlier, police said.

The demonstrator's death is the latest of several violent episodes in Nepal in advance of elections scheduled for Thursday. Also Wednesday, a small explosion was reported in the capital of Kathmandu, but no one was injured.

Officers fired on demonstrators Wednesday as they protested Tuesday's killing of Rishi Prasad Sharma, a communist candidate. Their shots killed one person in Surkhet, about 400km (250 miles) west of Kathmandu, police said.

Sharma, candidate for the assembly that will rewrite Nepal's constitution, was shot at about 8 p.m. (10:15 a.m. ET) Tuesday in Surkhet, district officer Anil Kumar Pandey told CNN.

About two hours later, government officials say, police shot and killed six members of a Maoist political party in the city of Dang -- about 200 km (125 miles) southwest of Kathmandu.

The circumstances of those shootings were not immediately clear, though government officials said the police fired after the party members were involved in some kind of disturbance.

Roughly a dozen others have been killed in pre-election violence across Nepal.

Voters go to the polls in Nepal on Thursday to decide the makeup of Nepal's 601-member constituent assembly. The assembly will decide the fate of the country's monarchy and prepare a new constitution.

The 240-year-old monarchy has been virtually suspended since King Gyanendra was forced to give up powers in April 2006 after a popular uprising across the country against his direct rule.

The government imposed a curfew in Surkhet after the violence. E-mail to a friend

Manesh Shrestha contributed to this report

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