Kathmandu - The Nepalese Election Commission Friday
announced official results of the Himalayan nation's election held
two weeks ago, confirming the Maoists as the biggest party in the new
constituent assembly.
The Election Commission said the Maoists had won 100 seats through
proportional representation, pushing its total number of seats to 220
in the 601-member assembly.
The official result also confirmed that the Maoists fell short of
a majority in the constituent assembly which is tasked with writing a
new constitution and ratifying a decision of the interim parliament
to abolish monarchy.
The Nepali Congress party of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala
was a distant second with 110 seats, 73 of which were from the
proportional voting.
The moderate Communist Party of Nepal - Unified Marxist Leninist
won a total of 103 seats including 33 in the directly contested seats.
The final result showed that two southern Nepal based parties had
done well.
Madhesi People's Right Forum, which championed the cause of ethnic
Madhesis in the south, won a total 52 seats including 30 through
direct elections.
Another regional party, Terai Madhes Democratic Party, won 20
seats.
The two southern parties' performance is considered significant in
view of the violent protests that crippled normal life in southern
Nepal for weeks earlier this year, in their bid to fight for the
rights of ethnic Madhesi people.
The two parties say the ruling establishment, made up of
predominantly people from the hills, discriminated against ethnic
Madhesis.
'The parties have one week to nominate members by including women,
people from the oppressed and backward class as per the election
rules on inclusion of these communities,' the Election Commission
said.
The commission warned the parties may lose seats if they were not
able to meet the regulations.
'If the parties are unable to include marginalised groups in the
list of nominations, they will be given an extra three days. If they
fail again to meet the criteria, the seat will go to the next biggest
party,' the commission told representatives of political parties.
The Constituent Assembly's first task will be to form a new
government and ratify a decision of the interim parliament to the
abolish monarchy.
The election was a key part of the peace agreement between the
government and the Maoist rebels that ended a decade-long insurgency
in which nearly 14,000 people died.
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