ID :
16092
Sat, 08/16/2008 - 09:43
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/16092
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Former rebel chief becomes Nepal's new prime minister
KATHMANDU, Aug. 16 Kyodo - Nepal's special assembly on Friday elected Maoist chief Prachanda the new prime minister of the Himalayan nation.
Prachanda received 464 votes in the election, more than two-thirds of the votescast, while former premier Sher Bahadur Deuba got just 113 votes.
''I hereby announce that Prachanda has been elected as Nepal's prime ministerby a majority,'' assembly chair Subas Nemwang announced after the election.
Prachanda, who led a decade-long communist insurgency, was the favorite to win after the country's third- and fourth-largest parties decided Thursday to backhim.
He leads the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which won the most seats in the chamber in the special assembly election held in April, but fell short of amajority.
The assembly is tasked with writing a new constitution, after which the countrywill have to hold a general election.
Prachanda's political career spans over three decades, with most of it spent asan underground communist revolutionary.
Until he came to Kathmandu in 2006 to announce the end of the Maoist insurgency and sign a peace deal with mainstream parties, very little was known about hispersonal details, including appearance.
The absence of his pictures and the inability of state forces to trace hiswhereabouts made many people think that Prachanda was a fictitious character.
Prachanda's party started the insurgency in 1996, demanding that the country be turned into a republic and a federation. The first demand was met when theassembly ended the 240-year monarchy in May.
Though the Maoist insurgency was inspired by Peru's Shining Path, Prachanda later came up with his own derivative of Marxism, Leninism and Maoism calledthe Prachanda Path.
Prachanda lives in a four-storey house in the outskirts of Kathmandu, which, according to Maoist lawmaker Nanda Kumar Prasain, is guarded by 1,500 Maoistfighters.
Despite widespread human rights violations by the Maoists during the insurgency, Prachanda stated after his party's successful election campaign in April that his party is committed to respecting human rights and freedom of thepress.
One of his biggest immediate challenges will be to regularize the supply of fuel in the country, which has faced an acute fuel crisis for more than a year owing to the inability to adjust domestic fuel prices with rising internationalprices.
His government will also have to deal with the complex process of integrating of over 20,000 Maoist fighters with state forces, and redressing the grievances of families of those killed by the Maoists during the insurgency byestablishing the promised Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
==Kyodo
Prachanda received 464 votes in the election, more than two-thirds of the votescast, while former premier Sher Bahadur Deuba got just 113 votes.
''I hereby announce that Prachanda has been elected as Nepal's prime ministerby a majority,'' assembly chair Subas Nemwang announced after the election.
Prachanda, who led a decade-long communist insurgency, was the favorite to win after the country's third- and fourth-largest parties decided Thursday to backhim.
He leads the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which won the most seats in the chamber in the special assembly election held in April, but fell short of amajority.
The assembly is tasked with writing a new constitution, after which the countrywill have to hold a general election.
Prachanda's political career spans over three decades, with most of it spent asan underground communist revolutionary.
Until he came to Kathmandu in 2006 to announce the end of the Maoist insurgency and sign a peace deal with mainstream parties, very little was known about hispersonal details, including appearance.
The absence of his pictures and the inability of state forces to trace hiswhereabouts made many people think that Prachanda was a fictitious character.
Prachanda's party started the insurgency in 1996, demanding that the country be turned into a republic and a federation. The first demand was met when theassembly ended the 240-year monarchy in May.
Though the Maoist insurgency was inspired by Peru's Shining Path, Prachanda later came up with his own derivative of Marxism, Leninism and Maoism calledthe Prachanda Path.
Prachanda lives in a four-storey house in the outskirts of Kathmandu, which, according to Maoist lawmaker Nanda Kumar Prasain, is guarded by 1,500 Maoistfighters.
Despite widespread human rights violations by the Maoists during the insurgency, Prachanda stated after his party's successful election campaign in April that his party is committed to respecting human rights and freedom of thepress.
One of his biggest immediate challenges will be to regularize the supply of fuel in the country, which has faced an acute fuel crisis for more than a year owing to the inability to adjust domestic fuel prices with rising internationalprices.
His government will also have to deal with the complex process of integrating of over 20,000 Maoist fighters with state forces, and redressing the grievances of families of those killed by the Maoists during the insurgency byestablishing the promised Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
==Kyodo
