Editorial
Nepali People Vote to Abolish the
Monarchy and Establish a Democratic Republic
The people of Nepal went to the polls on April 10 to
elect a constituent assembly. The constituent assembly is mandated to draft a
new constitution for the country. Initial results indicate that the Communist
Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN(M)) won a decisive
victory in the elections and is expected to end up with almost half of the
seats in the constituent assembly. The Nepali Congress Party (NCP) and the Communist
Party of Nepal – United Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML), which together dominated
the previous parliament, have been reduced to minor parties. The leader of the
CPN-UML resigned his position after going down to personal defeat in his
constituency.
Over
60 percent of Nepal’s 17.5 million eligible voters turned out to the polls to
elect 575 members to the Constituent Assembly. Of those 335 will be elected on
the basis of proportional representation while the other 240 will be elected in
constituencies through a first-past-the-post system. An additional 26 members
will be selected on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers, for a total
of 601 members. Ballots are still being counted and re-ballotting
will take place in 98 constituencies, so there is still a possibility that the CPN(M) could win an absolute majority of the seats.
The
Maoist leader Prachanda (Pushpa
Kamal Dahal), who led a
decade-long armed struggle against the monarchy and the parliamentary parties,
has announced that he will form a new government and the monarchy will be
abolished. He gave King Gyanendra a deadline of four
weeks to step down and leave the palace. The Maoists have declared that they
will turn the palace into a museum. The assembly is required to convene its
first meeting within 21 days of the final election results being announced; if
the king has not stepped down by that date it is expected that the assembly
will order his removal.
The
attitude of the U.S., India and China towards the Maoist victory is not yet
clear. The Indian government, which backed the
Congress and CPN-UML parties, has issued a statement welcoming the results of
the election. However, India fears that the success of the Maoists in Nepal
could lead to armed uprisings in its own northwestern states. The U.S. still
lists the CPN(M) as a terrorist organization and has
not yet released a statement on the election results. For its part, China has
concerns about separatist movements in its western regions. In addition, China
is busy erasing all vestiges of socialism within its own borders so will not
welcome the election to power in a neighbouring
country of a party that has declared itself to be dedicated to the
establishment of socialism. There are also concerns that armed struggle may
erupt in the Himalayan country of Bhutan, which borders Nepal.
It
is too early to tell how the situation in Nepal will develop over the next few
months. The CPN(M) has called on the Congress and UML
parties to join with it to form a coalition government, but so far they are
refusing to do so. Some members of those parties have been advocating
non-cooperation with the Maoists in order to sabotage their efforts to
stabilize the new republic. It is also a virtual certainty that the U.S., India
and China will be doing their utmost over the coming period to subvert the will
of the Nepali people and ensure that the situation in Nepal develops in
accordance with their respective imperialist interests.
The
MRC sends its heartfelt congratulations to the revolutionaries and all of the
people of Nepal who have emerged victorious after a long and difficult
struggle. We wish them further successes in eliminating all vestiges of
feudalism in their country and in defeating the machinations of the
imperialists to deny the people of Nepal the fruits of their victory.