(The following articles are from the May 1-15, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

PV Vancouver Bureau

Nepal's April 10 country-wide elections to form a Constituent Assembly (CA) have put the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist in first place. With just over 30% support in the proportional representation ballot, and 116 "first past the post" (FPTP) seats as of April 19, the former rebels are in position to lead the country's next government.

     The outcome seems certain to end the country's deeply unpopular monarchy, which had been reluctantly forced to accept democratic changes in the 1990s, but continued to overrule elected governments. Placing abolition of the monarchy as its main goal, the Maoist rebellion was based in rural areas, but the CPN-M also won large votes in Kathmandu and other cities.

     Narrowly ahead in the race for second is the bourgeois-oriented Nepali Congress party, which had been in office for much of the past two decades, with 32 "FPTP" seats and 21% of the vote. With 31 FPTP seats and nearly 21% of the popular vote, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), was in third place. The CPN(UML) had taken as much as 30% of the vote in elections during the 1990s, and briefly formed a government during that decade. The party was strongly represented in the interim government which took office after the king was compelled to yield power, leading up to the April 10 election.

     Running fourth with nearly 4% of the vote and 24 FPTP seats was the Madhesi People's Rights Forum, based among an oppressed ethnic group in the country's south. Several smaller communist parties received about 4% of the total vote; in total, over 55% of Nepali voters backed communist parties, indicating the depth of desire for radical change in the country.

     According to the official Nepali Election Commission site, the CA "is an assembly of people's representatives chosen by the people for the formation of a new constitution, as desired by the people. [It] is needed in Nepal to restructure the nation according to the aspirations of the People's movement... to reach a decision on the future of monarchy, to ensure democratic rule of law, to ensure proportional representation in all the bodies of state, to institutionalize the people's sovereignty and to create an atmosphere for all the citizens to exercise equal rights."

     By agreement among the political parties, 240 CA members are being elected through the first-past-the-post system and 335 CA members by proportional representation, while another 26 will be nominated in the 601-member Constituent Assembly.

     On April 16, all seven cabinet ministers representing the CPN-UML submitted a resignation letter to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, stating their intention to honour the people's mandate to the CPN-M to lead the government. There were reports that the other major parties, including the CPN-M, were pressing the CPN-UML to reconsider its decision to quit the government.