Left Alliance sweeps National Assembly elections in Nepal

Kathmandu  :  The Left Alliance in Nepal has swept the National Assembly elections securing 39 seats, officials said on Thursday.

Of the total 56 seats in the upper house, left alliance constituents Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), the largest party, won 27 seats and CPN (Maoist Center) secured 13 seats.

The ruling Nepali Congress bagged 12 seats, Federal Socialist Forum Nepal and Rastriya Janata Party Nepal won two seats each. The results were announced by the Elections Commission Nepal on Thursday.

With the conclusion of the elections, it has also paved the way for government formation. It is widely perceived that the Chairman of the CPN-UML K. P. Oli will be the next Prime Minister, but to complete the formalities of the elections will take another ten days, according to the commission.

The election was held on Wednesday, almost two months after the conclusion of the House of Representatives (HoR) and Province Assemblies election.

Out of the 2,056 members of the electoral college, 1,677 eligible voters including 1,234 chiefs and deputy chiefs and 443 province assembly members had cast their votes to elect 32 upper house members out of 56 since 24 members were elected unopposed ahead of the election.

In province 2, all eight members were elected unopposed while 16 other members were also elected unopposed from six different provinces.

Fifty two members from 13 different parties had competed in the election. The candidates were elected under the single transferable voting system.

After all the election results are out by the next weekend, the formation of the new government will begin, Law Minister Yagya Bahadur Thapa said.

He added that as soon as President Bidhya Devi Bhandari will authenticate the results of the National Assemblies, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba will put in his papers, paving the way for Oli to form the government.

As the UML does not have the majority seats to lay claim to forming the government, the party will seek support from the CPN (Maoist Center), led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda'.

The two parties are in talks for the unification, but no headway has been made so far.

As per the constitutional mandate, the President shall appoint the Prime Minister and convene the first meeting of the HoR and the National Assembly within 30 days of the HoR election results.

The Elections Commission wrote to the national parties of Nepal on Thursday, asking them to provide the list of women candidates to be elected in HoR under the proportional representation system.

One-third of the seats, out of 110 members in the HoR under the proportional seats, have been reserved for women as per the constitutional obligation.

Now parties have to give the names of women lawmakers to represent them in the HoR under the proportional representation system. Then the composition of the HoR will be completed and the formal announcement of all election results of the Provincial and Federal Assemblies will be made by the EC which will be authenticated by the President.