Kathmandu, April 11, 2008
The Maoists were today found to be faring well initially in the CA polls as the counting of votes started across the nation.
Nobody, even the media and intelligentsia, had expected that the Maoists, who entered the peace process just two years ago after a decade-old armed insurgency, could do so well across the country, including the Kathmandu Valley.
The Maoist candidates were leading in Constituency No-2 and 3 of Lalitpur district and Constituency No-2, 9 and 10 of Kathmandu district till this report was filed. But senior Maoist leader Dr Baburam Bhattarai said it was only “natural,” and not surprising as described by other parties, mainstream media and the international community. “The agenda of constituent assembly, republic and federal structure of governance all are our agenda,” Dr Bhattarai, who is leading in Gorkha-2, said, responding to the initial results of election across the country.
He said the people voted for them thinking that those agenda could be executed only after the Maoists won the election. He hoped they would win an absolute majority in the election. “I had expected that the Maoists could also emerge as a major political force after the polls. But I had never imagined that they could have such a huge p re s e n c e even in Kathmandu Valley,” Prof Krishna Khanal at Tribhuvan University said.
It has been a severe blow to the CPN-UML which had expected to perform even better this time than in 1999’s parliamentary election. But what is surprising is that even UML general secretary Madha Kumar Nepal and other prominent leaders, including Bamdev Gautam, are lagging behind.
Witness to a drama
Sarlahi, April 11, 2008
An incident that this reporter witnessed live this afternoon at Sarlahi’s district headquarters of Malangawa indicates that all is not well all the time in parts of central and eastern Tarai where armed groups are still active, but lying low.
Something could go wrong anytime even as tight security is in place since a few days. And, such incidents naturally send a chill down the spines of many. This reporter, now on assignment to cover the historic Constituent Assembly election, cannot be an exception.
The only respite — you realise at the end of a long breath after moving to safety at the advice of colleagues in Kathmandu — is that such dramas end abruptly — well, the way they began in the first place.
On my way out of the Chief Returning Officer’s office at Malangawa, I saw a group of armed cops trying to take two young men forcibly towards the office of the Chief District Officer. Both the men in the police’s arms were resisting and one was pleading thhe had the licence. Just then one of them punched one of the cops.
The locals, also watching the scene from around 100 metres or so, were caught in surprise. So was I.
A version of this article appears in print on April 12, 2018 of The Himalayan Times.