Nepal’s Maoist former rebels continued yesterday to sweep initial results announced in elections key to a peace process that saw them give up their 10-year armed revolt.
The ex-rebels, formally known as the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), won 44 seats out of 79 in constituencies where counting had been completed, the election commission said. The Maoists were leading in most of the other areas where votes were still being tallied, it said.
The traditionally powerful, centrist Nepali Congress was trailing with only 12 seats and the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) had 14 seats, the commission said.
The Maoists’ leader, Prachanda, whose rebel nom de guerre means “the fierce one,” won a seat representing Kathmandu, the capital, on Saturday.
“This victory is a command by the Nepali people to establish lasting peace,” the 54-year-old former rebel leader told reporters after the result was announced. “We are fully committed to the peace process and multiparty democracy and to rebuild this country.”
Complete results for the 601-seat Constituent Assembly are still a few weeks off, although officials say they should have a clear picture of what the assembly will look like later this coming week.
None of the parties who contested the vote — from the Maoists to centrist democrats to old-school royalists — are expected to win a majority.
But the Maoists strong early showing has surprised most observers, who before the vote had them placing third behind the country’s traditional electoral powers, the Nepali Congress and the United Marxist-Leninists.
The election has been touted as the cornerstone of the 2006 peace deal with the Maoists, in which they gave up their fight to establish a communist state by force. The agreement followed weeks of unrest that forced Nepal’s king to cede absolute power, which he had seized a year earlier.
The Maoists are still considered a terrorist organization by the US.
“I want to assure the international community, especially India and China ... that we will have good relations with them and work to secure all cooperation for Nepal,” Prachanda said.
Former US president Jimmy Carter, whose Carter Center sent 62 observers to monitor the election, described the election as one of the “most profoundly important” of the 70 he has witnessed because it marked the end of a decade of political violence and the probable transformation of Nepal from a Hindu kingdom to a democratic republic.
Scattered shootings and clashes that killed two people on election day and eight others in the days leading up to the poll did not deter millions of Nepalis from casting ballots in the Himalayan country’s first election in nine years.
Smaller parties made some gains. The Madeshi People’s Rights Forum, a party that wants greater autonomy for southern Nepal, had six seats and the Tarai Madesh Democratic Party won one, the election commission said.
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