The Nepali Congress (NC) emerged as a front-runner in the second Constituent Assembly election held a week ago, with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) gaining a close second position.
Together, the two parties that had formed partnership on most issues for the new constitution in the last assembly moved closer to attaining a two-thirds majority in the Constituent Assembly election.
The counting of ballots under the proportional representation (PR) electoral system is going on but the trend after counting of more than 60 per cent shows that the two parties together will secure a strong majority that will give them a decisive say in formation of government and Constitution-writing. Some of the NC and CPN(UML) leaders that The Hindu reached expressed confidence that their parties would reach understanding on forming the government and drafting the Constitution.
The NC and the CPN (UML) are yet to hold formal talks on government formation. While the CPN (UML) leaders are silent over which party should be leading the government, NC leaders say the mandate was in favour of their party. “The Nepali Congress will lead the government,” Dr. Minendra Rijal of NC told The Hindu.
Koirala for PM post
Dr. Rijal also said that NC president Sushil Koirala was the natural choice from the party to be the Prime Minister and the party’s top trio — Koirala, Sher Bahadur Deuba and Ram Chandra Paudel — would decide on it.
Talks about CPN(UML) leaders duo and the former Prime Ministers — Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhala Nath Khanal — as being the choice of next Prime Minister were also being mentioned.
The NC has emerged a clear front-runner in both the electoral formats. It won 105 seats under the direct election of candidates and has so far bagged 26 per cent under the PR system. The CPN(UML) is a close second with 91 seats and 25 per cent, respectively. The largest party in the last assembly — the UCPN (Maoist) — is in a distant third position.
