Nepal's leftists secure majority in upper house; to form govt

Nepal's Communist parties today secured an overwhelming majority in the upper house of Parliament with 39 seats, paving the way for the leftist alliance to form the country's next government led by its leader K P Sharma Oli.
The election for 56 seats of the National Assembly -- the upper house of Parliament -- was conducted peacefully in all six provinces with a huge voter turnout of over 99 per cent yesterday.
The CPN-UML won 27 seats whereas the CPN-Maoist Centre, led by Maoist chief and former prime minister Prachanda, won 12 seats, according to the Election Commission.
The Nepali Congress won 13 seats and the Rastriya Janata Party Nepal and Federal Socialist Party Nepal, both Madhesi parties, won two seats each in the National Assembly.

The results pave the way for the Leftist alliance comprising the CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre to form the new government, more than a month after the historic Parliamentary and provincial-level elections.
The elections were the first under Nepal's new post-war Constitution promulgated in 2015, which turned the country into a federal democratic republic devolving significant power from the centre to the seven provinces.

CPN-UML chief Oli, former prime minister known for his pro-China stance, and is poised to become the new Prime Minister of Nepal, leading the Leftist alliance.
The Constitution has stipulated for a bicameral federal legislature comprising the House of Representatives and the National Assembly.

The election for the House of Representatives was held in two phases on November 26 and December 7. There are a total of 275 seats in the House of Representatives whereas the National Assembly (the Upper House) has 59 members.
Of them, 56 members are elected by the electoral college with eight members from each province, including at least three women, one Dalit and one person from the disabled or minority communities.
The president will nominate three members, including at least one woman to the National Assembly, at the recommendation of the council of ministers.
The electoral college is made up of 2,056 voters, including 1,506 mayors and deputy mayors of municipalities, and chairpersons and vice-chairpersons of the rural municipalities.

The rest of the electorate are the 550 members of the Provincial Assemblies of all the seven provinces.
The Left Alliance of the CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre secured 174 seats in the 275-member Parliament in the country's recently-concluded historic provincial and parliamentary polls that many hope will bring much-needed political stability to the Himalayan nation.