After an embarrassing defeat in the constituent assembly (CA) poll held on 10 April 2008, Emaalay (UML) General Secretary General Madhav Nepal has submitted his resignation to his party central committee in a press meet held this afternoon at party headquarters, Kahmandu. Speaking to reporters, he said that the UML would soon quit the coalition government.
General Secretary Madhav Nepal told reporters that the CA poll results were ‘surprising, perplexing and unimagined’.
In response to journalists’ question why the UML lost the CA poll battle, Nepal said his party central committee would seriously scrutinize causes. But he did not fail to allude to his usual allegations of threats, beatings and abductions. Contrary to his allegations, Carter Center, UN Mission to Nepal, European Union and dozens of other national and international observers have reported that the April 10 CA poll was free and fair, and they marked it as an epoch-making event.
Giving background information on the context of loss in the CA poll, UML Information Chief Raghuji Pant questioned the fairness and independence of the election. He mentioned the phrase ‘undesired activities,’ referring to the CA poll. Pant himself had been defeated by Maoist candidate Pampha Bhusal in Lalitpur constituency #3.
UML, which was the largest party in Nepal, lost the CA poll even it its previous strongholds, including Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Jhapa.
The UML had joined King’s regressive government in 2005. Before that, it had approved the State of Emergency against Maoist insurgents whom the government also labeled as terrorists. Before the CA poll, Maoist leaderships had been urging calling for seat-sharing and cooperation between the two parties, but the UML rejected this call, saying it was Maoists’ fear of losing.
At the time of writing this line, Maoists have won more than 62 constituencies, three to four times the seats won by the UML and the Nepali Congress. Both the NC and UML, Nepal’s long-ruling parties accused by people of becoming corrupt, have hesitated to accept poll results. Their party workers have been imposing allegations on the winning Maoists though international and national poll observers, including the UN and European Union, have said the poll was excellent.
Referring to the loss in the CA poll, some UML cadres standing at the party headquarters gate expressed their view that the General Secretary’s resignation should be accepted. They said that the UML had to accept the Maoists’ call for bilateral cooperation in the CA poll. It was a serious mistake, they said.