NEPAL: VICTORY OF COMMUNIST MAOIST PARTY

By Kiran Pandey

Source: "Nepali Times"

Former guerrilla chieftain, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, aka Prachanda, has been elected the first prime minister of the Republic of Nepal after winning a vote in the Constituent Assembly in which the UML, MJF and 13 smaller parties supported his candidature.

RED PRIME MINISTER: A profusely garlanded and vermilioned Pushpa Kamal Dahal waves after winning the CA election to the post of prime minister on friday.

The election marks the mainstreaming of the Maoist party from a guerrilla force and the culmination of its emergence as the largest party after the April elections. Dahal also resigned as the head of the PLA and pledged to disband the YCL and return all private property seized during the conflict.

Of the 551 members presenting the assembly, Dahal got 464 votes while NC candidate Sher Bahadur Deuba obtained only 113. Rastriya Janamorcha Nepal and Rastriya Janasakti Party abstained while Nepal Peasant and Labour Party boycotted the election, as it had the presidential election. But the RPP (Nepal), which boycotted the presidential election voted for Dahal.

The matter went to the NC vote after the Big Four parties failed to reach a consensus on the candidature because of a dispute between theNC and the UML over the defence ministry portfolio.

Outgoing Prime Minister GP Koirala also cast his vote from where he was sitting from the front row of the assembly. It could be the last time he could be seen in the assembly, as he is not an assembly member. It is said that the NC gave the candidacy of Deuba to make him the leader of the NC parliamentary party.

"The Maoists are in the process of transformation, and we must support them in bringing them out of the jungle," said the UML’s Ishwar Pokhrel.But the NC’s Minendra Rijal said his party still had strong reservations about the Maoists’ commitment to peaceful politics.

Lal Salam!