Nepal poll panel prepares final election results

Kathmandu – After one-and-a-half-months, Nepal’s Election Commission has prepared the final results of the Nov 19 Constituent Assembly election, officials said Friday.

The election commission officials said the result has been submitted to President Ram Baran Yadav and it will be made public soon.

After the government publishes the result in government gazette, ways will be opened for calling the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly, Xinhua reported.

“We have submitted the final result and now entire election process has been completed,” Chief Election Commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety said.

The process of result announcement was delayed as the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) faced an unexpected loss in the Nov 19 elections and was refusing to submit the names of its leaders to join the Constituent Assembly.

The commission submitted the list of 240 lawmakers elected under the first-past-the-post electoral system and 335 lawmakers under the proportional representation system. The remaining 26 members of the 601-member assembly will be nominated by the cabinet.

The Nepali Congress, a centrist party, emerged as the largest party, while the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) secured second position and UCPN-M the third position in the new Constituent Assembly.

According to the interim constitution, the first Constituent Assembly meeting should commence 21 days after the submission of the final list of assembly members to the president.

However, there is a deadlock in Nepal about calling the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly, though both Chairman of Interim Election Government Khilraj Regmi and the president are eager to call the meeting.