Nepal poised to announce poll results

Nepal authorities said today they finished vote-counting and were preparing to announce results from elections for a constitutional assembly, the first since communist rebels gave up their insurgency and joined mainstream politics.

Of the total 601 members in the Constituent Assembly, 240 are chosen by directly elected seats, while 335 are chosen by proportional representation and 26 nominated by the government.

The elections were held on April 10. Counting of votes for directly elected seats had been completed earlier this week.

Election commissioner Usha Nepal said today that officials had finished counting the proportional representation votes by this morning and that the results were likely to be announced in the afternoon.

The assembly will rewrite the constitution, decide the future political system and rule the country during an interim period.

The ex-communist rebels, formally called the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), won 120 of the 240 directly elected seats.

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s Nepali Congress party won 37 seats, the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) had 33, and the Madeshi People’s Rights Forum, which was seeking autonomy and greater rights for people in southern Nepal, had 30 seats.

The former rebels were also leading in the proportional representation votes.

The results make it increasingly likely that the Maoists will form the backbone of a new government.

The Maoists top leaders have been meeting with different political parties to form a new coalition government.