Maoists heading for victory; PM Koirala faces his Waterloo
By Bhola B Rana
Kathmandu, 12 April: Early election result indicate Maoists will be the biggest party in the 601-member constituent assembly.
Maoists Saturday increased their lead in second day of vote counting in Thursday’s election for 240 direct seats in the constituent assembly elections while bagging three of five officially declared seats.
Indirect elections were held for 335 seats.
CPN (Maoist) have bagged one seat each in Manang, Palpa, Dang and two seats in Lalitpur; Pampha Bhusal whose nomination as Nepal’s ambassador to France was rejected by Paris, has also been elected.
“We were the only alternative party and the people who were looking for change have chosen us. The victory was expected,” Maoist Communication Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara said after winning from a constituency in Dang where Maoists lead in all constituencies.
Congress candidate Khum Bahadur Khadka sent back his government police security guards who shot dead seven Maoists and more than one dozen others in pre-election violence.
Maoists are leading in counting in 47 constituencies while Congress and CPN-UML are leading in 16 and 13 constituencies; Madesh Janatantrik Fourm formed after a terai revolt leads in seven constituencies.
Congress has won one seat in Kathmandu and CPN-UML has bagged two seats—one each in Mustang and a Palpa constituency.
Prakash Man Singh, the son of Ganesh Man Singh, the nemesis of the prime minister, won elections for the first time.
The Forum, a NGO, turned itself into a political party pushing regional demands.
Madesh Janatantrik Forum leads in seven constituencies; Nepal Majdoor Kishan Party (NMKP) is certain to be elected to assembly with two seats from its traditional base Bhaktapur and Nepal Sadbhavana leads in two constituencies.
The election of nationalist communist and Chairman of NMKP Narayanman Bijukakchaya is certain.
In the last lap of his political career, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala is dragging the Nepali Congress to its second defeat first in 1994 an now in 2008.
In the first election, his politics led to election of the first communist government in the work and now the Maoists are emerging as possibly the biggest political party in the proposed assembly.
In contrast, the only surviving founding member of the party Krishna Prasad Bhattarai led the party to two victories in elections after the 199 movement.
Theprediction of Ganesh Man Singh is turning out to be true, one journalist said.
"This Bahun will lead the party and nation to ruin,; ‘he recalled Ganesh Man Singh as saying in Kalpalgudi at the party’s convention before quitting the party, like Bhattarai.
The prime minister’s cousin Sushil Koirala in heading for certain in Banke where a Forum candidate is leading. Fourm and Maoists are leading in all constituencies in Banke—a stronghold of the Congress.
Maoists are also leading in all the four constituencies in Bardia.
Daughter Sujata is trailing in third position in Sunsari behind Forum’s Chairman Upendra Yadav and a CPN-UML candidate.
CPN-UML General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal is trailing behind a communist candidate in a Kathmandu constituency.
Chairman Prachanda and Hishila Yami, Baburam Bhattarai’s wife, are lweading in tweo capital constituencies.
Congress and CPN-UML face grim prospects.
Madhav Kumar Nepal’s dream of leading a government as the largest party is the assembly has been shattered with nearly one-third of the votes being counted.
It appears, a trend has set in.
Election Commission has ordered re-poll in 60 booths; as it reviews complaints of malpractice, the Commission could re-vote in more booths.
Voting hasn’t started in several districts like Dhading, Sindupalchowk and several other districts because of complaints of widespread rigging by Maoists, Congress Madesh Janatantrik Forum and other parties.
Maoists aren’t alone in tampering with the vote as alleged by major parties like the Congress and CPN-UML.
India and USA have welcomed the election while Washington asked all to welcome the election result; Maoists charged New Delhi and Washington for trying to defeat it in the vote in which they are participating after the launched the people’s war 12 years ago.
Prime Minister Koirala has kept silent on the election result which is turning out a humiliating defeat for his and his coterie.
Signals are ominous for the Congress as Maoists and Forum have made inroads into its traditional stronghold constituencies in the terai.
In another blow for Koirala, controversial home minister Krishna Prasad Shitaula is also trailing in vote counting in Jhapa; the trusted Koirala like with Maoists was charged in the party for protecting and promoting Maoists.
During government, Maoist, talks he was called a minister-in-waiting for Maoists.
Despite reserves for the Koirala coterie, Sher Bahadur Deuba;s election is ensured with a comfortable lead in Dandeldhura.
Speaker Subash Newang and Jhalanath Khanal contesting on CPN-UML tickets are leading in Ilam.
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