KATHMANDU // Nepal’s Maoists agreed on Tuesday to join the country’s constituent assembly, ending a month-long political deadlock and raising hopes of political stability in the country.
A senior leader said the Maoists would take part in the new assembly after other political parties promised to probe their claims of vote-rigging in elections held last month.
“We have agreed to join the assembly and help draft a constitution,” Maoist official, Narayan Kaji Shrestha, said.
The Maoists, who were routed at the polls, threw the country into renewed turmoil when they claimed fraud in the November 19 elections, seen as key to completing a peace process after a 10-year civil war.
Millions of Nepalis voted in the elections, hoping to install a constituent assembly that would write a constitution and end years of political turmoil in the impoverished nation.
The Maoists, who swept the country’s first post-war elections in 2008, won just 80 out of 575 seats and came a distant third behind the Nepali Congress and Unified Marxist-Leninist (UML) parties.
Maoist rebel-turned-politician Pushpa Kamal Dahal, better known as Prachanda, demanded a halt to vote-counting and called for an investigation into alleged election fraud.
But Mr Shrestha said the Maoists would formally sign a deal forged with the other parties, that includes a clause to conduct the vote-fraud investigation, to join the assembly.
“We will forge the agreement for the sake of the peace process. If each party remains adamant on its position, then how can we reach a deal?” he said. “Our focus now is on delivering the constitution within a year.”
Agence France-Presse
