Nepal’s former communist insurgents won half the directly elected seats for a constitution-drafting assembly in this month’s election, showing strong national support for the ex-rebels, the chief election official said yesterday.
The April 10 elections were the first since the former rebels, known as the Maoists, joined the political mainstream in a peace process last year, though they are still considered a terrorist organization by the US.
Formally known as the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the ex-rebels billed themselves as a real change from the traditional, squabble-laden politics of the country’s recent past and launched a campaign relying heavily on grassroots, door-to-door promotion.
The party has won 120 of the 240 directly elected seats, chief election commissioner Bhojraj Pokhrel said. Counting for three seats was continuing, but the Maoists were not expected to win them.
The Nepali Congress party has won 37 seats, the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) has 32, and the Madeshi People’s Rights Forum, which has sought autonomy and greater rights for people in southern Nepal, has 28 seats.
The directly elected seats make up about 40 percent of the total seats in the assembly.
Most of the additional seats are allotted to political parties based on the percentage of votes they received in separate proportional representation ballots. Results for those 335 seats are expected later in the week.
So far in that tally, the former rebels have garnered about 2.9 million votes out of the 9.6 million so far counted. The Nepali Congress has 2.1 million and the United Marxist-Leninists 2 million.
About 10.5 million proportional representation ballots were cast.
The remaining 26 members in the 601-seat Constituent Assembly are nominated by the government.
The assembly will rewrite the constitution, deciding the future political system for Nepal and governing the nation in the interim.
The election results have surprised traditional powers such as Nepali Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist).
Meanwhile, Nepal’s embattled King Gyanendra yesterday angrily denied speculation he will be heading into exile following the Maoists’ victory.
A statement from the royal palace rejected what it said were “malicious reports appearing in sections of the national and international media in recent days against the royal palace.”
“The reports referred to are about his majesty going to India,” a palace source said.
“He will not be going anywhere. He is not going to leave the country,” the source said.
The ultra-leftists say they intend to abolish Nepal’s 240-year-old monarchy as quickly as possible, and have called on Gyanendra to leave the palace “gracefully” rather than be forcibly evicted.
Maoist leader Prachanda has said he wants to talk with the king, to persuade him to leave of his own accord, rather than be booted out.
“In history, monarchs have been beheaded and also had to flee. Let that not be repeated in Nepal,” the school teacher-turned-revolutionary said late last week.
The Maoists have warned the king that he faces “a trial and strong punishment” if he refuses to accept life as a commoner in one of the world’s poorest nations.
Maoist spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara said yesterday the leftists did not care where the king intended to go — as long as he understood he would lose the last trappings of his royal life.
“It does not matter whether he lives in India or Nepal. We have already decided with the interim constitution what will be done. We are going to declare Nepal a republic, and he will have to accept it,” Mahara said.
Gyanendra came to the throne in bizarre and tragic circumstances in 2001, when his popular brother and eight other family members were shot dead by a drunk, drugged, love-sick and suicidal crown prince.
The new monarch and his son Paras — loathed for his reported playboy lifestyle — failed to win the hearts and minds of a public that viewed the pair’s survival of the palace massacre as deeply suspicious.
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