Chapter 29

Summary

The final declaration of the three-tiered results was completed by the beginning of the monsoon season in 2008. The seats comprised 335 under the Proportional System, 240 under the FPTP and 26 Appointments by the Council of Ministers.

In the FPTP ballot, the Maoists got 120 seats, whereas the former ruling parties—the Nepali Congress and Unified Marxist Leninist got 37 and 33 seats respectively. The Maoists 120 seats, therefore, represented 50 per cent of the total FPTP seats—almost three times that of the Congress party or the UML party. This result implies that if the electoral system had not become a mixed system the Maoist party would have secured a clear majority in the Constituent Assembly election.

The newly emerged Madhesi Forum party secured 30 seats, making it the fourth largest party in the FPTP race, and the Lokatantrik party nine seats, making it the fifth largest party in the FPTP race. In the previous parliamentary elections in 1999, after the Congress and UML parties, the most successful party was the royalist Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP). Before this election, sensing public mood, the RPP removed from its constitution its policy of supporting constitutional monarchy. But still, the RPP—and other royalist splinter factions—made considerable losses.

Unfortunately, the representation of women, and other previously underrepresented groups, remained low in this FPTP race. In the case of women, for example, female candidates represented less than 10 per cent candidates nominated by all the parties.