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More than 60 percent of Nepalese voters cast their votes at polling booths across the country April 10 in Nepal’s twice-delayed parliamentary elections. The elections are being held two years after Nepal’s mainstream political parties and Maoist rebels entered a peace agreement that ended a decade-long civil war. The elections will lay the groundwork for Nepal to receive a major makeover in the weeks and months ahead, transforming the 240-year-old monarchy into a full-fledged republic.
Though the elections are indeed a historic event, they are unlikely to usher peace into the Himalayan kingdom any time soon. The major task at hand for the elected parties is to draft a new constitution that will deal with the highly contentious issues of officially abolishing the monarchy, redistributing power to Nepal’s array of ethnic minorities and reshaping the army. Given the country’s internal divisions — and India’s ongoing interventions into its ethnic politics — instability will remain in Nepal long after the monarchy is gone.
The Maoists said that they would only allow the election process to move forward if they received guarantees that the monarchy would be suspended when the Constituent Assembly was elected into power. Thus far, those who remain loyal to the throne do not have the numbers to block the vote — though there is still the matter of the more than 4,000 troops who have refused to leave the Kathmandu palace in support of the king.
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