Ruling coalition loses majority

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s ruling coalition has lost its majority in parliament, results from last month’s election showed on Wednesday in a rebuke by voters to the Himalayan republic’s ageing political elite.

The Nepali Congress (NC) of incumbent Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, 76, emerged as the largest party but his fiveparty ruling alliance fell short of a majority with 136 seats in the 275-member parliament, according to the election commission.

“Our party has emerged as the largest party. Still, it’s not the result in line with our expectation. We had expected more,” said Prakash Sharan Mahat, a spokesperson for the party.

As a result, NC will have to seek support from some of the 34 independent and minor party candidates who entered the assembly for the first time in a wave of voter discontent. Prominent among them is bombastic television host Rabi Lamichhane, 48, a long-time campaigner against government corruption. His National Independent Party, contesting its first election, won 20 seats and became the fourth-largest in the assembly.

The November 20 election was just the second held under the current constitution, which ushered in a new political order after the conclusion of Nepal’s traumatic Maoist insurgency.

The decade-old civil war ended in 2006, having claimed more than 17,000 lives and prompting the abolition of the monarchy, bringing former rebels into the government fold.

Since then the ex-guerrillas have alternated in power with another communist party and NC in various coalitions.

In the election, many voters eagerly supported new candidates who sprang up in response to public discontent with established politicians in the country of around 29 million people. But with Deuba, who has already served as premier five times likely to return as PM, some are sceptical about the prospects for substantive change.