‘Our alliance is strong’: communist parties win majority in Nepalese elections
Nepal emerged from a bloody civil war in 2006 and ousted the monarchy two years later, beginning its transition to a federal democratic state
An alliance of Nepal’s former Maoist rebels and the main Communist party have won a majority of seats in parliamentary elections and are expected to form the next government, according to preliminary results from the election commission.
The Communist CPN-UML and the Maoist Party look set for a landslide victory in the landmark polls that mark the end of the Himalayan nation’s drawn-out transition to federal democracy 11 years after the end of a brutal civil war.
The leftist alliance has won 84 seats in the national parliament and leads in a further 31, securing a majority.
The incumbent Nepali Congress has so far won just 13 seats, performing worse than expected.
The lower house of parliament comprises 165 seats that are directly elected and a further 110 that are allocated to parties based on proportional representation votes.
Early tallies show that the Communist alliance will also dominate in most of the seven newly created provincial assemblies.
“We feel that the people accepted our appeal to vote for the ‘Left Alliance’ for stability and prosperity,” said senior CPN-UML leader Pradeep Gyawali. “Our alliance is strong … We will prepare to form the government.”
