Maoists lead as Nepal vote counting ends

Apr 24, 2008, 3:21 GMT

Kathmandu - Nepal's Maoists emerged as the largest party in the constituent assembly following completion of vote counting from elections held nearly two weeks ago, officials said Thursday.

The Election Commission said it had completed counting of ballots for the proportional representation that would determine 335 seats in the 601 member constituent assembly.

However, the election commission was expected to take a couple of days to allocate seats to parties on the basis of number of votes received.

'Counting of votes from all constituencies for the proportional representation has been completed,' the Election Commission said. 'Of the 10.7 million votes, the Maoists have won 29.3 per cent which will make it the largest party in the constituent assembly.'

According to officials, the Maoists were predicted to receive 100 seats from the proportional representation taking its total seats in the assembly to 220. It had won 120 of the 240 seats which were contested through direct voting.

The Nepali Congress party was predicted to gain 73 seats in addition to its 37 seats which came in the directly contested seats.

'We will use modified Sainte Lague Method to determine the number of seats for the proportional representation,' Election Commission spokesman Laxam Bhattarai said. 'Once the allocation is completed, we will ask the parties to nominate their candidates to complete the process.'

Bhattarai said he did not expect significant changes in the final position of the parties once the allocation of seats was completed.

The election results mean that the Maoists, which until two years ago were still tagged a terrorist organisation, will emerge as the biggest party, though without a majority.

The Maoists have already said they intend to lead the next government and have called on the seven party alliance to continue with the coalition.

The moderate Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninists which was now projected to get 103 seats has already pulled out of the government citing its poor performance in the elections.

The ethnically based party, Madhesi People's Right Forum which championed the cause of ethnic Madhesis in the south also performed extremely well winning 52 seats including 30 through direct elections.

The Constituent assembly's first task would be to form a new government and ratify a decision of the interim parliament to 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.